Determining Allometry and Carbon Sequestration Potential of Breadfruit ( Artocarpus altilis ) as a Climate-Smart Staple in Hawai‘i

Chad Livingston and Noa Kekuewa Lincoln ()
Additional contact information
Chad Livingston: Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Noa Kekuewa Lincoln: Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-12

Abstract: Breadfruit ( Artocarpus altilis ) is an underutilized Pacific tree crop that has been highlighted as having substantial potential to contribute to global food security and climate-smart agriculture, including adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. To explore the carbon sequestration potential of breadfruit production, we characterize tree volume, wood density, carbon density, foliar biomass, and growth rates of breadfruit in Hawai‘i. Strong relationships to trunk or branch diameter were displayed for wood density (r 2 0.81), carbon density (r 2 0.87), and foliar biomass (r 2 0.91), which were combined to generate an allometric prediction of tree volume (r 2 0.98) based on tree diameter at breast height. Growth rates, as measured by diameter at breast height, were well predicted over time when trees were classified by habitat suitability. We extrapolate potential breadfruit growth and carbon sequestration in above-ground biomass to the landscape scale over time. This study shows that breadfruit is on the low end of broadleaf tropical trees in moist and wet environments, but in an orchard can be expected to sequester ~69.1 tons of carbon per hectare in its above-ground biomass over a 20-year period.

Keywords: allometric equation; climate-smart agriculture; carbon farming; agroforestry; Hawai‘i; biomass; indigenous crops; neglected and underutilized species (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15682/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15682/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15682-:d:1275414

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().