LARGE AMAZON TREES: RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS, SPECIES RICHNESS AND WOOD STOCKS
Carbon stocks, large trees, forest management
The large trees of tropical forests are critical to carbon stocks and essential for climate regulation. In this study, we used data from forest inventories of 10 sites with forest management for timber extraction in the western region of the state of Pará to achieve two objectives related to large trees in the Amazon: a) to evaluate the most suitable allometric equation for estimating the biomass of large trees in the Amazon, and b) to analyze the importance of species richness as a predictor of carbon and timber stocks based on the niche complementarity hypothesis. In each studied site, trees with a diameter at breast height greater than 50 cm (DBH≥50cm) were sampled, totaling a sample area of 20,449.95 hectares. The results showed that the equation by Réjou-Méchain et al. (2017) was the most appropriate for estimating biomass. Species richness was positively associated with biomass (R2= 0.53; p<0.01) and timber stocks (R²= 0.30; p<0.01). Our results indicate that species richness increases biomass and wood stocks, highlighting the importance of biodiversity conservation, and efficient allometric models and equations are crucial for estimating carbon stocks in natural areas.