The type of agroforestry systems and their capacity to
sequester carbon vary globally. In alley cropping systems,
the carbon is stored in the woody components of the trees as
well as in the soil, to which continually organic material from
the trees, and crop residues are added. As a result, the extent
of sequestered carbon in these systems depends on the
amount of carbon in aboveground and belowground bounded
biomass, soil organic carbon stock and the carbon sequestered
in wood products respectively carbon substituting fossil
energy resources. The heterogenous structure and the interactions
between the agricultural and the coppice strips affect
the carbon cycle. Generally, the carbon balance of ecosystems
is determined by photosynthesis, which is the main carbon
input into ecosystems (gross primary production) and losses
due to the autotrophic respiration by plants (net primary
production). Frequently, parts of the accumulated biomass are
returned to the soil and enter the decomposition processes, for
which microbial activity (heterotrophic respiration) balances
the ecosystem carbon flux (net ecosystem production).
Additional carbon may be lost due to disturbances such as
fire, harvest or pests (non-respiratory fluxes) and in result the
remaining carbon on the biome level (net biome production) is
only approximately 1% of the photosynthetic carbon input
(Schulze, 2006).