Masanja, Sarafina N.2025-01-112025-01-112023https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/6490MSc. DissertationDeadwood is an important element playing an essential role in the maintenance of biodiversity, soil fertility and carbon sequestration. The amount of carbon stored in standing dead trees and other fallen woody debris alive or dead forms an important component of the carbon pools. Previous studies have estimated total carbon stocks for different land cover classes but they did not segregate deadwood in estimating carbon and none had considered levels of uncertainty estimates and the state of the woody decay. Also, there are limited information on stand structure of deadwood and how it is related to deadwood biomass. This study aimed to quantify deadwood carbon stocks in different vegetation types, the relationship between deadwood species structural diversity and deadwood carbon stock along different environmental variables. The study used dataset from National Forestry Resources Monitoring and Assessment of Tanzania (NAFORMA). The study revealed that solid deadwoods had higher carbon stocks and emission factor than rotten deadwoods whereby the estimated deadwood carbon stock ranges from 0.11 to 1.01 tC ha -1 , contributing 0.79% of the total carbon from different vegetation types. Compared to other vegetation types, forests and woodlands had higher deadwood carbon stocks and emission factor while grasslands had the lowest. Species abundance and soil moisture were positively significant related to deadwood carbon, with the highest effect shown by soil moisture while species richness and soil organic carbon had a negative significant relationship with deadwood carbon. In lowland forest, deadwood carbon stock of Brachystegia sp.-Pterocarpus angolensis (BP) community was positively significant influenced by soil moisture while in woodlands, deadwood carbon stock for Julbernardia globiflora-Pterocarpus angolensis (JP) community was negatively significant influenced by soil organic carbon and deadwood carbon stock of Dalbergia melanoxylon-Pteleopsis myrtifolia (DP) community was positively significant influenced by soil moisture. Understanding how deadwood carbon and stand structure of deadwood interact with environmental conditions contributes to the understanding of forests and woodlands carbon dynamics. Therefore, this study provides valuable insights for policymaking related to climate change mitigation, carbon accounting and effective biodiversity conservation in tropical ecosystemsenDeadwood carbonStock and StandStructure characteristVegetationSoil fertilityThesis