(200f) Carbon Sequestration:Mathematical Model of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the world’s biodiversity hot spots and probably one of the most highly threatened tropical forests. Understanding the forest, the carbon sequestration and develop a valid representation of the long-term dynamics of natural tropical forest are the goals of this study. Building a local forest growth model including anthropogenic activities will lead us to a better understanding in order to take sustainable actions.

We present a model of the floristic and ecological interaction in plant communities in the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, state of São Paulo, Brazil. One of the key challenges in this simulation is to create an individual-based model adapted to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest specificities. The model is based on carbon balance (photoproduction versus respiration and mortality) and shows recruitment, growth, mortality and competition between trees for light and space.  It is a multi-species model showing different successional group and the multi-storey canopy layer structure of the forest.

The main purpose of the model is to evaluate the carbon sequestration for different forest growing situation.

The results reveal the long-term structure, dynamics and carbon sequestration of the forest at community and plant functional type (PFT) level.