International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—In the light of increasing fears about climate change, green house gas mitigation is one of the today’s major concerns. Carbon capture and storage are the options in the reduction of CO₂ emission intensity. Trees are among the most important and common sinks for atmospheric carbon. The carbon storage potential of Mahogany (Sweitenia macrophylla) sapling has to be elucidated to shed light on the contribution of this sapling in greenhouse reduction. The study aimed to assess the aboveground standing biomass of the species, CO₂ capture and C storage potential of the leaves, bark and wood of this species. Allometric equation was used to calculate the above ground biomass which served as basis in the calculation of g C stored into a ratio of CO₂ (g) captured by the species. The result showed that the wood of the samples had an average biomass of 268.26 g and captured more CO₂ (16.244 g) compared to the leaves (12.111 g) and bark (5.934 g). Each sample species have accounted storage of 4.458 g C in the wood, 3.325 g C in the leaves and 1.162 g C in the bark. The aboveground biomass of each sapling has potentially captured a total of 34.29 gCO₂ from the atmosphere. The grams of C stored to the biomass of the saplings which largely contained in the wood, small amount in the leaves and least in the bark.

Index Terms—Biomass, carbon dioxide capture, storage potential, Swietenia macrophylla.

J. B. Superales is with the J. H. Cerilles State College, Mati, San Miguel, 7029 Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines (e-mail: superjerry27@gmail.com).

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Cite: Jerry B. Superales, "Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Potential of Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) Saplings," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 8, pp. 611-614, 2016.