Ryan Smith

Terrestrial lands are increasingly recognized for their importance in storing carbon in soils and living biomass. Understanding where this terrestrial carbon is stored in a landscape is important for understanding climate implications associate with landuse change. In tropical Asia, homegardens and tea plantations are two major landuses that are important for subsistence and economic activities, are highly variable in terms of their carbon storage capacity, and are generally understudied. This study measures aboveground carbon stocks in homegardens and tea plantations in Pitakele, a small village in the buffer zone to the Sinharaja Man and the Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site with exceptionally high endemism and the last remaining primary lowland wet tropical rainforest in Sri Lanka. A landuse land classification was created in the village, and fixed radius plots were randomly placed in both homegarden and tea plantations that were over a minimum of .05 hectares in size. Trees, shrubs, and saplings were measured for height, diameter, and in the case of shrubs, crown diameter. Carbon stocks were estimated using allometric equations. While the results are still being analyzed, preliminary results show that homegardens have significantly higher aboveground carbon stocks than tea plantations. This case study contributes to our understanding of carbon storage in smallholder landscapes in tropical Asia, provides insights into how these carbon stocks can change with respect to landuse change, and is relevant for potential payment for ecosystem services schemes, such as carbon offsets.