Carbon Stock and CO 2 Fluxes in Various Land Covers in Karang Gading and Langkat Timur Laut Wildlife Reserve, North Sumatra, Indonesia

Mangrove forests play an important role in coastal areas from an ecological perspective, being able to store large amounts of carbon through sequestration and inhibiting climate change processes by absorbing CO 2 in the atmosphere. In recent years, there have been changes in the land cover of converted and degraded mangrove forests which have resulted in the release of carbon and an imbalance in soil structure, which in turn cause a flux of CO 2 into the atmosphere. This research was conducted at the Karang Gading and Langkat Timur Laut Wildlife Reserve (KGLTLWR) in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The study focused on six different land covers, namely natural forests, restoration, mixed agriculture, paddy fields, oil palm plantation, and ponds. This study aimed to measure the total carbon stock of mangrove forests that have been converted to other land covers and estimate the level of CO 2 flux in the area. A total of three transects and six plots for each land cover were used in this study; for tree biomass, a non-destructive method was used by recording every DBH > 5 cm, and for soil carbon, drilling was carried out, which was divided into five depths in each plot. CO 2 flux was measured using an Eosense Eosgp CO 2 sensor with the static closed chamber method. The highest carbon stock was found at 308.09 Mg ha −1 in natural forest, while the lowest 3.22 Mg ha −1 was found in mixed agriculture. The highest soil carbon was found at 423.59 MgC ha −1 in natural forest, while the lowest 50.44 MgC ha −1 was found in mixed agriculture dry land. The highest average CO 2 flux value of 1362.24 mgCO 2 m 2 h −1 was found in mangrove restoration and the lowest in ponds was 123.03 mgCO 2 m 2 h −1 . Overall, the research results inform how much carbon stock is lost when converted to other land covers so that it can be used as a reference for policy makers to provide future management of mangrove forests and develop mitigation measurements to reduce carbon emissions.