Impacts of Oil Palm Plantation and Agroforestry Systems On Soil Carbon Pools: Indonesia's Case.

In Indonesia, oil palm plantation and agroforestry systems are considered common practices for restoring marginal land invaded by Imperata cylindrica grasses.  These systems show the potential to sequester carbon leading abandoned cultivated lands to the mitigation of the greenhouse effect by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and making the soils as carbon sinks.  These ecosystems can store a part of the carbon which has been lost due to deforestation and cultivation.  Converting the grassland to oil palm, timber, and fruit productions may change the distribution and stratification of soil organic carbon pools.  In this study, soil organic carbon, particulate organic carbon, and microbial biomass carbon were determined in restored land under different age of oil palm plantations and various type of agroforestry systems in Sumatra.  Comparison will be made among grassland, cultivated land, forest land, agroforest land, and oil palm plantations to estimate the amount and the potential rate of soil organic carbon lost and accumulation. The importance of land management for carbon sequestration will be discussed.