2nd International Conference on Agriculture, Environment and Biological Sciences (ICAEBS'15) August 16-17, 2015 Bali (Indonesia)
Estimation CO2 Fixation by Rubber Plantation
Alchemi Putri Juliantika Kusdiana, Aprizal Alamsyah, Sherly Hanifarianty, and Thomas Wijaya*

Forest and climate change is becoming interesting topics. It
was estimated that 1.7 billion ton carbon was release every
year due to land use change. Deforestration and forest
degradation is main contributor of green houses gas emission
in Indonesia. During 10-15 yaers back, forest fire, peat
drainage causing the emmision more than 0.5 billion ton of
carbon [2].
Trees have ability to fix CO2 from air through
photosynthesis process so that trees can reduce CO2 content in
the air. Reforestration is one way to reduce CO2.
Reforestration as much 1-2 million km2 was estimated to
capture carbon as much as 1 billion ton per year [3].
Rubber trees are potential in absorbing CO2. The life cycle
of rubber trees is 30 years, and this long period of time will
enable rubber tree to accummulate subtantial amount of CO2.
Previous experment conducted by Sivakumaran et al. [4]
estimate that the amount of carbon absorbed in 1 ha of rubber
area at 27 years old was 319 ton
There is a good rubber wood industry in Indonesia now,
while in few decades back, the majority of rubber wood was
wasted and rubber wood waste become source of carbon
emmission. Rubber wood is now commonly used in furniture,
Medium density fibre factory and veenner industry. Thus,
carbon is retain in rubber wood product for long period of
time or rubber tree can function as carbon storage
The research activity was carried to determine the amount
of CO2 fixed by two clone RRIM 600 dan GT 1 by measuring
the biomass and C content. Prediction of biomass and carbon
content was also done by using simple linear regression.
Abstract—Global warming is mainly due to the increase of green
house gases or it is known as green house effect. The existence of
rubber tree is beneficial because rubber tree can reduce CO2, more
over, rubber tree provide income from latex and timber harvesting.
The experiment was carried out Balai Penelitian Sembawa, on area
planted in 1979 or the age of tree was 33 years and there were 2
clones studied i.e. RRIM 600 and GT 1. Estimation of CO 2 fixation
by GT1 and RRIM 600 rubber clones were carried out by measuring
biomass and the C organic content in biomass. The experiment was
using destructive method by cutting down the tree with various girth
size. Then the weight of tree was determined by partioning biomass
into stem, branch, leaf and root. Small sample was taken for C
organic content determinaion by ashing method. The result showed
that the bigger girth of tree, the more C organic content was found.
The economy of timber of clone RRIM 600 was higher than GT 1
because of RRIM 600 had higher timber volume. Based on C
organic concentration, and biomass weight, RRIM 600 fixed CO2 as
much as 1,288 ton/ha while GT 1 fixed CO2 as much as 1.028 to/ha
for 1 life cycle. In average, RRIM 600 and GT 1 fix CO2 as much as
39.056 and 31.167 ton per hectar per year,
Keywords—CO2 fixation, rubber plantation
I. INTRODUCTION
The Global warming and climate change is affected all over
the world. This is mainly due to green house gas concentration
in the atmosphere is kept increasing. Climate change is
becoming United Nation’s agenda and there is some effort to
reduce emmision from varoius sectors slow down the global
warming
Green house gases especially CO2 keep increasing since the
industry revolution and this was relate to the increasing global
temperature. The green houses gases is acting like roof of
green house that is absorbing the long wave radiation from
earth surface and re radatiated to earth surface and prevent the
cooling process of air [1].
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experiment was conducted at the Sembawa Research
Centre, South Sumatra, The site was 1979 planting area or 33
years old rubber planting with two clones RRIM 600 and GT
1. The tree samples were 10 trees for each rubber clone. The
tree sample was randomly chosen with different girth sizes.
A. Measurement of Tree Biomass
Tree biomass was measured by partitioning tree into stem,
banch, leaf and root. Stem is main part of tree without
branches. The stem, braches were cut into 2 m lenght pieces to
make easier in weighing. At the same time girth or
circumference of stem and branch was measured in order to
calculate timber volume. Leaf was separated and weight in
fresh condition then small sample was taken for water content
and C organic content determination. Root was cleaned from
soil that attached on its surface and then weighted.
Alchemi Putri Juliantika Kusdiana, Aprizal Alamsyah, Sherly
Hanifarianty, Thomas Wijaya*, are with Indonesian Rubber Research
Institute, Jl Salak No 1, Bogor, Indonesia
http://dx.doi.org/10.17758/IAAST.A0715018
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2nd International Conference on Agriculture, Environment and Biological Sciences (ICAEBS'15) August 16-17, 2015 Bali (Indonesia)
III. ANALYSIS OF ORGANIC CARBON ( OC)
Each sample of stem, branch and leaf and root are
separated, Small amount of sample was grinded and 1 gram
of sample was taken and it was put in ceramic container and
it was put in furnace 105 oC for 2 hours, then at 300 oC for 2
hours and 550 oC for 3 hours. Sample was weighed at
105oC and 550oC. C organic content, water content was
determined with equation as follows:
OC (%) =100 - (ash content +water content)/(van
biemelen factor)
Water content =(weight at 105 oC)/(fresh weight) x 100%
Ash content = weight at 550 oC
Van Biemelen factor = 58%=1.724
For practical application, the simple regression method was
develop to estimate the biomass and OC content. Shorrocks et
al. [5] method where they used stem girth as predictor of total
biomass weight was adopted in this experiment.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Research was inisiated by chosing tree samples from rubber
area that was going to be replanted. The tree samples were
chosed based on girth size so that the regression model to
estimate biomass can be develop with girth. Tree sample for
each clone was 10 (Figure 1)
Fig. 2 The relationship between total biomass weight of RRIM 600
and GT 1 clones with girth
Timber volume was also determined by assuming that stem
shape is cylindrical. The result of volume of timber
measurement is shown in Table 1.
TABLE I
THE AVERAGE VOLUME OF TIMBER PER TREE
Clone
Stem (m3)
Branch
Total (m3)
(m3)
RRIM 600
0.734
1.219
1.953
GT 1
0.698
0.962
1.660
Tabel 1 shows that from 10 sample trees for each clone,
RRIM 600 clone had higher volume compared to GT 1
especially in branch part as RRIM 600 produced more
branches than GT. GT 1 was more difficult to produce
branches than RRIM 600 and in practical, branch induction
was carried to promote GT 1 to produce branches and impove
the growth due to higher leaf area [6]. For economic
prespective, RRIM 600 was having higher value because it
could produce higher volume of timber. For timber purpose,
actually there was genotype (timber clone) that produced
much higher timber volume. For example, Lotfy et al.[7]
mentioned that genotype RO/OP/4-20/125 at 13 years old
could produce timber as much as 2.518 m3 per tree.
Organic carbon (OC) was part component in plant tissues,
and by determining the OC in plant tissue, the total organic
carbon in the whole tree would be known as the biomass
weight was known, the total organic carbon can be calculated.
Table 2 shows the concentration of OC and total OC for GT1
and RRIM 600 clones. The concentration of OC in stem,
branch, leaf and root were relatively the same, so the total
amount OC in plant tissue was mainly determined by the
biomass weight. RRIM 600 showed the higher OC content
Fig. 1 Research Activity in field. (Top) weighing and girth
measurement (Bottom) removing soil from root
From biomass weight paritioning into stem, branch, leaf and
root. After water content was known, the dry weight of
biomass was known and it was related to girth as shown in
Figure 2. Biomass weight was noteasy to measure so that
empirical model to estimate biomas weight was established by
developing regression between girth and biomass weight. The
coefficient determination were quite high for both GT I and
RRIM 600 clones (> 0.8)
http://dx.doi.org/10.17758/IAAST.A0715018
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2nd International Conference on Agriculture, Environment and Biological Sciences (ICAEBS'15) August 16-17, 2015 Bali (Indonesia)
TABLE III
CO2 FIXATION BY RUBBER FOR 1 HECTARE AREA
that mean this clone was able to fix more CO2 from air
compared with GT 1.
TABLE II
BIOMASS WEIGHT AND OC CONTENT OF RRIM 600 AND GT 1
Biomass
Total OC
Part
% OC
(ton)
(ton)
RRIM GT
RRIM GT
RRIM
GT
600
1
600
1
600
1
Stem
0.607
0.574
56.9
56.8
0.345 0.326
Branch
0.453
0.254
56.9
56.8
0.258 0.139
Leaf
0.033
0.017
56.9
56.9
0.019
Root
0.143
0.152
56.4
56.3
0.081 0.086
Total
1.236
0.997
V. CONCLUSION
0.01
Research had found that estimation of biomass could be
carried out with girth parameter and because the organic
concentration was relatively similar among plant part, the total
carbon content could also be estimated by using girth
parameter. Since each rubber clones had different growth
characteristics, more research should be carried out for other
recommended clones.
REFERENCES
0.703 0.561
For quick estimation of Carbon content, a simple linear
regression model was developed. Figure 3 shows the
relationship between girth and OC content of RRIM 600 and
GT 1 clone. The coeficient of determination was quite high
(> 0.8) showing that girth was good for estimation of OC
content of rubber tree, However because the branching pattern
was different among clones, the relationship must be defined
for each individual clone.
[1]
Anwar C, Honggokusumo S, Wijaya T. 2010. The Impact of Climate
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Suryaningtyas H, Arizal R.
Proceedings Indonesian Rubber
Conference and IRRDB Symposium 2000. Indonesian Rubber Research
Institute; Bogor, 12-14 September 2000. Bogor: IRRI. pp: 79-102.
Shorrocks VM, Templeton JK, Iyer GC. 1965. Mineral Nurition,
growth and nutrient cycle of Hevea brasiliensis. III. The relationship
between girth and shoot weight. J. Rubb. Res. Inst. Malaysia, 27(2):
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Tani Karet Rakyat. Ed ke-5. Palembang: Balai Penelitian Sembawa.
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[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
.
Fig. 3 The relationsship between girth and Organic content of RRIM
600 and GT 1
The estimation of CO2 fixation for 1 hectare of rubber
plantation is shown in Table 3. The population of rubber tree
was 500 trees per ha, then organic carbon can be transformed
into CO2 by multiplying with 3.66 based on molecular weight.
For 1 cycle of rubber, the amount of CO2 fixed by RRIM 600
and GT 1 were 1.288 and 1.028 ton per hectare, and the
average CO2 fixation per ha per annum were 39 and 31 ton per
ha per year.
http://dx.doi.org/10.17758/IAAST.A0715018
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