Agroforestry
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 external page 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. em. 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.
Publications
2013
Sprenger M, Oelmann Y, Weihermüller L, Wolf S, Wilcke W, Potvin C (2013) Tree species and diversity effects on soil water seepage in a tropical plantation. Forest Ecology and Management 309: 76-86, doi: external page 10.1016/j.foreco.2013.03.022
2011
Heidemann C (2011) Neglected CO2 source detected. ETH Life, 18.08.2011
King B (2011) Native Trees Clean the Air of Carbon Dioxide, Pastures Pollute. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (external page STRI) - Headline News, 18.–24.11.2011
King B (2011) Pastureland pollutes. STRI News - Newsletter of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 25.11.2011: 6
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, doi: external page 10.1016/j.foreco.2010.11.015
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: 2116-2125, doi: external page 10.1016/j.rse.2011.04.016
Wolf S, Eugster W, Majorek S, Buchmann N (2011) Afforestation of tropical pasture only marginally affects ecosystem-scale evapotranspiration. Ecosystems 14(8): 1264-1275, doi: external page 10.1007/s10021-011-9478-y
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: 1139-1151, doi: external page 10.1016/j.agrformet.2011.04.002
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: 2763-2780, doi: external page 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02460.x
2009
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
Wolf S, Eugster W, Buchmann N (2009) CO2 fluxes of tropical ecosystems with different land-use in Panama. FluxLetter 2(3): 14-16
2008
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: external page 10.1109/MICRAD.2008.4579514
Contact (E-mail)
Nina BuchmannProject Members
Funding
This project was funded by the North-South Centre (originally by ZIL – Swiss Centre for International Agriculture, a competence centre of ETH Zurich).