Estimation of Oil Palm Total Carbon Fluxes Using Remote Sensing

Abstract

Net primary production (NPP) is one of the approaches used to estimate the amount of carbon sequestration by plants. This research aims to estimate the total carbon flux exchanged from different ages of oil palm using remote sensing.  The study site was at the PTPN VI Batang Hari, Jambi, Sumatra, Indonesia. The amount of carbon sequestration by oil palm plantations at PTPN VI Batang Hari, Jambi can be estimated using remote sensing based on the light use efficiency (LUE) model.  The results showed that the oil palm age affects the amount of carbon sequestrated.  The lowest Net primary production value was found at one year of planting 4.28 gCm^-2day^-1, and the highest was 9.38 gCm^-2day^-1 at 20 years of planting. The model LUE output was validated using Eddy covariance data and the results showed a low error and a high accuracy rate with RMSE = 0.05 gCMJ^-1, R² = 92%, and p-value = 0.04. We concluded that the LUE model can be used with high accuracy to estimate the amount of carbon absorption of oil palm when direct measurement is unavailable.