Carbon Budget as a Tool for Assessing Mangrove Forests Degradation in the Western, Coastal Wetlands Complex (Ramsar Site 1017) of Southern Benin, West Africa - The Land/Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone of West and Central Africa - page 140

(a) Transect orientation and lay-out (Random compass direction)

100m

10 m

10 m

5m

Seaward
edge

10m

5m

5m

10m

10m

Baseline

0.2 - 2.7km

5m

5m

10m

5m 10m

10m

10 m 20m

20m

(b)

10m

5m

0.5m
0.5m

Baseline (transect axis)

1m

1m

1m

5m

Fig. 2

a Schematic layouts of mangrove forest stands permanent sample plots and, b roots and sapling inventories (After Ajonina 2008 )

Fig. 3 Permanent transect layout: Kpétou village site (transect 1) with non-mangrove woody vegetation (left) and degraded mangrove
vegetation (Photos Diyouke Eugene and Gordon Ajonina 2012)

ignition (LOI) and cooled in desiccators before reweighing.
The weight of each ashed sample was recorded and used to
calculate organic concentration (OC). Total soil carbon was
calculated as

The total soil carbon pool was then determined by sum-
ming the carbon mass of each of the sampled soil depths.

Data Analysis and Algometric Computations ¼ bulk density

tonnes = ha 1 g = cm 3

Soil C

soil depth interval c ðÞ % C

ð 2 Þ

Field data were organized into various filing systems for
ease

of analysis and presentation. Both structural and