Carbon balance in the silvopastoral systems of Caldén forest: sources or sinks of greenhouse gases?

Abstract

Abstract The objective of the following work was to address, through modeling and field data, a carbon balance as a function of forest cover for a silvopastoral breeding system in native Neltuma caldenia forest. For this, the herbaceous stratum in different forest covers was measured through sampling. Forage production for each tree density was affected by a use factor and was compared with the feed demand of a herd of breeding cows. The load values were affected by the estimated emissions in cattle breeding in the region (1,427 and 2,407 kg eq-CO2 animal− 1 year− 1). The evolution of the parameters of the forest mass was modeled using growth data obtained from 19 dendrometers distributed in 7 permanent plots in different tree densities. The results show that the herbaceous biomass was maximum in the condition of minimum woody cover and that from 8.5 m2 ha− 1 of basal area (BA) the forage yield decreases significantly (P < 0.05). The projected values of the forest flight show that from 2.4 m2 ha− 1 of BA, the eq-CO2 captures in the total tree biomass exceed the emissions of livestock supported by forage availability. If the capture of emissions that are trapped in the stem biomass is considered, the capture exceeds the emissions from 17.5 m2 ha− 1 of BA. It is concluded that managing the Caldén forest with appropriate silvicultural management would allow the production of "carbon neutral meat". The balance did not contemplate the capture of C by the soil.