Daya Rosot Karbondioksida Oleh Beberapa Jenis Tanaman Hutan Kota di Kampus IPB Darmaga

Abstract

The increase of temperature in urban area is indirectly caused by the increase of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere. The increase is caused by land cover alteration and high amount of human activities which uses fossil fuel. The existence of urban forest is one of the ways to coupe the increase of CO2 concentration in the urban atmosphere. Through photosynthesis process, CO2 gas is absorbed by various plants in urban forest and afterwards being released as Oxygen (O2). To control or reduce the concentration of CO2 effectively, in the establishment of urban forest, selection of plants which have maximum ability in reducing CO2 concentration needs to be done. The objectives of this research are to obtain data CO2 sink ability of 15 urban forest plant species in Bogor Agricultural University and to obtain data about the plant species that has the effective CO2 sink ability among the plants which are measured. The measuring of CO2 sink ability was conducted using carbohydrate method. CO2 mass is obtained by converting carbohydrate mass produced in photosynthesis. Other data taken include leaf area and the number of leaves. The higher the leaf area, the higher CO2 sink ability of a leaf. The higher number leaf of a tree, the higher CO2 sink in a tree. The CO2 sink ability of 15 plant species in cm2 of leaf area are (g CO2/cm2/hour): M. caesia 3,793 x 10-4; D. indica 2,180 x 10-4; B. racemosa 1,600 x 10-4; S. campanulata 1,249 x 10-4; M. champaca 1,176 x 10-4; S. malacense 0,820 x 10-4 ; B. capitella 0,805 x 10-4; C. cauliflora 0,734 x 10-4; V. pubescens 0,669 x 10-4; C. inophyllum 0,629 x 10-4 ; M. ferrea 0,479 x 10-4; A. moluccana 0,357 x 10-4; A. dammara 0,268 x 10-4-; and G. dulcis 0,089 x 10-4. The CO2 sink ability of 15 plant species in urban forest in order from the highest are D. indica, M. caesia, S. campanulata, C. inophyllum, B. racemosa, V. pubescens, M. ferrea, C. cauliflora,B. capitella, G. dulcis, M. champaca, S. malacense, A. moluccana, and A. dammara. Keywords: carbon dioxide sink, urban forest.