Research Data Leeds Repository

Dataset associated with ‘Carbon emissions from dryland shifting cultivation: a case study of Mexican tropical dry forest’

Salinas-Melgoza, Miguel Angel and Skutsch, Margaret and Lovett, John and Borrego, Armonia (2017) Dataset associated with ‘Carbon emissions from dryland shifting cultivation: a case study of Mexican tropical dry forest’. University of Leeds. [Dataset] https://doi.org/10.5518/188

Dataset description

This dataset includes the carbon stocks and estimation of fluxes under different maize production scenarios in a Mexican Tropical Dry Forest. This dataset was obtained from two rural communities (Tonaya and El Temazcal) with Tropical Dry Forest in Jalisco state (19°42´N, 103°54´W), western Mexico, at approximately 990 m a.s.l. Calculations were based on the area needed to produce 1 Mg maize in two agricultural systems; 3.33 for permanent agriculture (PA) and 3.6 for shifting cultivation (SC) (0.6 ha for cultivation and 3 for fallow). Average maize yields used in calculation were 1.684 Mg ha–1 for SC and 3.768 Mg ha–1 for PA. The regular SC cycle was considered to be 2 years of cultivation phase followed by 10 years in fallow phase (with three different phases). Field based forest carbon measurements were performed for both agricultural systems and this carbon stock were used in all the calculations. Carbon emissions in each scenario were evaluated through comparison between the different SC production regimes and areas untouched by production (remaining areas), which was defined as baseline state. Carbon stock for cultivation phase was 62.72 Mg ha-1, 47.12 Mg ha-1 for phase one of fallow, 61.21 Mg ha-1 for phase two of fallow, 67.99 Mg ha-1 for phase three of fallow and 70.63 Mg ha-1 for untouched areas. The carbon stocks and fluxes estimation were evaluated under three scenarios: A) comparison of carbon stocks and emissions of SC versus PA over a regular SC cycle, B) estimating carbon impacts of changing lengths of fallow of SC and C) evaluate the effect land pressure on carbon stocks and emissions in a SC system. In case A, annualized emissions from PA and SC per Mg of maize produced by year were obtained. PA only included soil carbon. Carbon stock include in SC were the weighted values of those of the cultivation phase and the different fallow phases. For case B, three lengths of SC were used: 1) 6 year cycle, 2) 12 year cycle and 3) 24 year cycle. In this case yields of maize remain constant at the different cycle lengths modeled. Emissions per Mg of maize produced by year were obtained. For 1 and 2, there is an area untouched by production and retain their baseline state. Carbon stock include in SC were also the weighted values of those of the cultivation phase and the different fallow phases. The final scenario C considers what would happen if under land pressure, peasant needs to produce more food from the same area. In this case, 4 Mg of maize are produced in the same area instead of 1, in a 6 year CS cycle. There is no areas untouched by production. Carbon stock include in SC cycle were those of the cultivation phase and first fallow phase, this last because SC cycle length included just this fallow phase. Carbon stocks and carbon emissions per Mg of maize produced by year are presented for this case. Area needed to produce 1 Mg maize in this case was 7.2 ha.

Keywords:

slash and burn; swidden cultivation; carbon stocks; REDD+; land sparing

Divisions:

Faculty of Environment > School of Geography

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