Dendrochronology applied to the estimation of aboveground biomass and carbon capture of Cedrela fissilis L. trees in neotropical forests, in the context of climate change

Abstract

Dendrochronology has been applied in the dating of trees of species occurring in neotropical forests, enabling the construction of growth rings chronology, reconstruction of growth in trunk diameter, and annual increments in volume, biomass and carbon of trunk wood. In the present work, these multi-proxies analyzes of growth rings will be applied to Cedrela fissilis (Meliaceae) trees that present characteristic annual growth rings and occur in vast areas of neotropical forests, with relevant ecological, social and economic. The main objective of the work is the construction of growth ring chronologies, followed by the determination of annual rates of increase in volume, biomass and C stock in the wood of C. fissilis trees located in the surroundings of Parque Nacional Cavernas do Peruaçu (PNP), Minas Gerais, and in the Parque Natural Municipal do Vale do Rio do Peixe (VRP), Santa Catarina. The basic and apparent wood densities of the annual growth rings will be determined by the gravimetric method and X-ray densitometry and applied in an adjusted allometric model to estimate the biomass and carbon fixed annually. Still, the work aims to I) evaluate the relationship between basic and apparent density of wood in C. fissilis trees; and II) build the long chronologies of current and accumulated annual increment (ICA) and average annual increment (IMA) of the volume, biomass and C of the trees of the 2 populations. The results will be applied to improve the determination of biomass and carbon in tropical tree wood and its relationship with dendroclimatology/ecology, sustainable forest management and assessment of climate change and extreme weather events. (AU)