Abstract
Ecosystem carbon stock is an important pool in global carbon cycle, and is seriously affected by land-use and management practices. The slash-and-burn cropping is widely practiced in the tropical mountains in Southeast Asia. Drastic land-use change in slash-and-burn ecosystems in mountainous mainland of Southeast Asia would strongly affect the food security, resource sustainability and global environment. Nevertheless, quantitative information has been scarcely available for the region. This study assessed the regional ecosystem carbon stock based on synergy of chrono-sequential analysis of satellite imagery and in situ measurements of carbon in the soil and fallow vegetation. Results suggested that the ecosystem carbon stock would continue decreasing under the present land-use condition with short fallow cycle, but also that both food security and ecosystem carbon stock would be increased by altering land-use/ecosystem management scenarios.
