STRUCTURE, ABOVE-GROUND BIOMASS, AND CARBON CONTENT IN THE CUMBRES DE MONTERREY NATIONAL PARK

One of the mitigation actions for climate change and conserve ecosystems is to declare more Natural Protected Areas due to their carbon storage potential. The aim of the study was to analyze the structure, estimate the above-ground biomass (BA) and the carbon content (C) in four types of vegetation, in the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park. A forest inven-tory of 100 sampling sites of 400 m(2) were established, mea-suring the normal diameter (Dn), height and crown diameter, of trees with Dn >= 7,5 cm. The species with the highest impor-tance value index were Quercus polymorpha in the oak forest, Abies vejarii in oak-pine, and Pinus pseudostrobus in the pine and pine-oak forests. The biomass obtained by type of vegetation using allometric and volume equations was for pine-oak 93.10 +/- 11.41 and 113.47 +/- 7.66MgBA<middle dot>ha(-1), oak-pine 117.33 +/- 5.07 and 129.16 +/- 7.24MgBA<middle dot>ha(-1), pine 121.52 +/- 7,16 and 89.22 +/- 9.71MgBA<middle dot>ha(-1) and oak 138.00 +/- 7.59 and 118.96 +/- 13.94Mg-BA<middle dot>ha(-1), respectively. The carbon content results obtained are 67.41 +/- 3.69MgC<middle dot>ha(-1) for oak, 59.92 +/- 3,67 MgC<middle dot>ha-1 for pine, 57.10 +/- 2.29MgC<middle dot>ha(-1) for oak-pine and 45.34 +/- 5.24MgC<middle dot>ha(-1) for pine-oak. The use of allometric and volumetric equations are reliable tools to indirectly estimate the above-ground biomass of the trees, in addition the measurement time is shorter, and the populations of the species are not affected compared to the destructive method.