Aboveground carbon storage in a temperate forest: high and low intensity forest management

Sustainable forest management is an alternative to conserve biodiversity, maintain forest structure and therefore, carbon storage. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of forest management on the diversity and structure of tree species, and to quantify the carbon content stored in the above-ground biomass of temperate forests in three systems: (1) Mexican Management Method of Irregular Forests (MMOBI) (2) Silvicultural Development Method (MDS) and (3) unmanaged forest (BNM), located in Santiago Xiacui and Santiago Comaltepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Alpha indices were used to estimate tree diversity. The structure was evaluated from the importance value index (IVI). The carbon stored in the biomass was estimated with dasometric data and volumetric equations. 44 species distributed in 14 families were identified. According to IVI, the most important species in the three systems were Q. laurina Humb. & Bonpl. and P. patula Schiede ex Schltdl. & Cham. presenting the highest carbon contents. While the system with the highest carbon content in the biomass was the BNM (341.6 Mg ha(-1) of biomass and 164.7 Mg ha(-1) of carbon content), in addition to having the highest density (872 trees ha(-1)). Forests managed with the MMOBI have greater carbon storage potential than MDS, because they have greater similarity in diversity and density than an unmanaged forest.