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How much carbon in a tree ppt for prac

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15 views21 pages

How much carbon in a tree ppt for prac

Uploaded by

grace.sharmag
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How carbon is stored

in trees
Properties
of carbon
Non metal
Naturally occurs
• Solid – coal, charcoal, diamonds
• A major component of all living things including trees
• Gas

• Has the highest melting point of all naturally occurring elements –


3350oC
Carbon cycle
• Carbon is cycles in several different forms.
• Carbon dioxide (CO2) is removed from the atmosphere by plants

• Plants convert carbon dioxide into a solid form in sugars - glucose,


starch and cellulose that is stored in leaves stems, trunks, branches
and roots
Photosynthesis

• 6 CO2 + 12 H2O + photons ➔


C6H12O6 + 6 O2 + 6 H2O
(carbon dioxide + water + light
energy ➔ glucose + oxygen +
water).
• Starch is also stored in
• reproductive tissue including flowers,
fruit, nuts, pods or cones,
• glucose is used in respiration to help
keep the tree alive.
• Cellulose is another sugar
manufactured by the plant.
Cellulose

• Cellulose
• plant cell walls
• maintains structure and keep
plants upright.
• Wood is around 40% cellulose
Cellulose
Carbon capture
• Australian forests sequester approximately 57 million
tons of CO2 per year
• (approximately 10% of the carbon produced as
greenhouse gases per year)

• approx. 4.4 million tons/year is lost from forests


• Includes prescribed burning and wildfires and wood
harvesting
Calculating CO2 stored in trees
based on the mass of the tree
• This will give us an average estimate over the life span of a tree.

• Some generalisations
• 30% of the green mass of a tree is water so 65% is solid dry mass
• 50 % of the dry mass is carbon
• 20% of the tree biomass is below ground – so a factor of 120% is used
• To calculate how much carbon dioxide the carbon figure is multiplied
by 3.67
CO2 sequestered per tree (kg) =
Tree mass (kg of fresh biomass) x 65% (dry mass)
x 50% (carbon %) x 3.67 x 120%
You don’t need to write this down or
remember how to do it
Example:
For a 12 year old spotted gum tree weighing 600kg green,
then the amount of CO2 sequestered by the entire tree =
600kg x 65% x 50% x 3.67 x 120% = 859 kg CO 2 or 72 kg
CO2 /yr

The example above assumed the mass of the tree was


600kg.
But what if you don’t know the mass of the tree and need
to calculate this in order to determine the CO2 stored?
How can we calculate the mass of a
tree?

• Firstly we find the volume of the tree in


metres cubed m 3

• Then multiply it by the density of the wood


- kilograms per metre cubed. kg/m 3
Volume is found using the height
and diameter of the tree
So how do we find the height?
So how do we find the height?

Tan of 45 = 1.
So, if you get the angle to
be 45 the calculation is
o

easy!
So how do we find the height?
Make the angle 45 degrees
(because then tan 45 = 1)
D = distance from the tree
Eye height -measure

Formula
Height = distance to
the tree + eye height
Diameter
• Measure the circumference of the tree at 1.3 metres above the
ground.

• Remember circumference =

• Diameter =
Nearly there
• Now calculate the volume of the tree
Find the volume of the tree.
Volume calculation Volume = m3
Then Calculate the mass of the tree
For Eucalypts

You use 700 kg/m3

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