Agroforestry

Contact
Nina Buchmann

Project members
Nina Buchmann
Werner Eugster
Sebastian Wolf

Further information
North-South Centre »»
Sardinilla, Panama »»

The Agroforestry project investigated the use of sustainable agroforestry for carbon sequestration to improve small farmers’ livelihood in the tropics. Our research site was located in Sardinilla, Panama.

This project had a twofold objective, which was investigated in two subprojects. Our group was working on Subproject 1 while the Applied Entomology Group of Prof. Silvia Dorn was working on subproject 2.

Subproject 1 aimed at assessing the response of plant productivity to future climate change in different land use systems in Panama and to quantify their carbon sequestration potentials, providing baseline information for adaptive management decisions and the very first data sets to policy-makers. Thus, carbon dioxide and water fluxes were measured continuously using two flux towers, one in a traditionally grazed pasture and one in an improved afforestation system (with native tree species), in order to quantify carbon sequestration potentials of these land use types in Panama.

Subproject 2 aimed at taking novel natural-based approaches to increase plant health and reduce insect pests in afforestation and silvopastoral systems. This subproject shall support timber tree establishment on current pastures as a future source of income to rural poor.

Funding

This project was funded by the North-South Centre (originally by ZIL - Swiss Centre for International Agriculture, a competence centre of ETH Zurich).

Publications

Heidemann C (2011) Neglected CO₂ source detected. ETH Life, 18.08.2011 (Web)

King B (2011) Native Trees Clean the Air of Carbon Dioxide, Pastures Pollute. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) - Headline News (www.stri.si.edu), 18.-24.11.2011 (PDF)

King B (2011) Pastureland pollutes. STRI News - Newsletter of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 25.11.2011: 6 (Web,PDF)

Potvin C, Manzilla L, Buchmann N, Monteza J, Moore T, Murphy M, Oelmann Y, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Turner, B.L., Wilcke W, Zeugin F, Wolf S (2011) An ecosystem approach to biodiversity effects: carbon pools in a tropical tree plantation. Forest Ecology and Management 261(10): 1614-1624 (Web)

Schneebeli M, Matzler C, Wolf S, Eugster W (2008) X-band opacity of a tropical tree canopy and its relation to intercepted rain, eddy fluxes and other meteorological variables. Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Environment, Microrad 2008. doi: 10.1109/MICRAD.2008.4579514 (Web)

Schneebeli M, Wolf S, Kunert N, Eugster W, Mätzler C (2011) Relating the X-Band opacity of a tropical tree canopy to sapflow, rain interception and dew formation. Remote Sensing of Environment 115(8): 2116-2125 (Web)

Wolf S, Eugster W, Buchmann N (2009) What happens with the carbon? STRI News - Newsletter of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 13.11.2009: 4 (Web,PDF)

Wolf S, Eugster W, Buchmann N (2009) CO₂ fluxes of tropical ecosystems with different land-use in Panama. FluxLetter 2(3): 14-16 (PDF)

Wolf S, Eugster W, Majorek S, Buchmann N (2011) Afforestation of tropical pasture only marginally affects ecosystem-scale evapotranspiration. Ecosystems 14(8): 1264-1275 (Web)

Wolf S, Eugster W, Potvin C, Buchmann N (2011) Strong seasonal variations in net ecosystem CO₂ exchange of a tropical pasture and afforestation in Panama. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 151(8): 1139–1151 (Web)

Wolf S, Eugster W, Potvin C, Turner BL, Buchmann N (2011) Carbon sequestration potential of tropical pasture compared with afforestation in Panama. Global Change Biology 17(9): 2763-2780 (Web)