Hyrcanian forests of North of Iran are of great importance in terms of various economic and environmental aspects. In this study, Spot-6 satellite images and regression models were applied to estimate above-ground biomass in these forests. This research was carried out in six compartments in three climatic (semi-arid to humid) types and two altitude classes. In the first step, ground sampling methods at the compartment level were used to estimate aboveground biomass (Mg/ha). Then, by reviewing the results of other studies, the most appropriate vegetation indices were selected. In this study, three indices of NDVI, RVI, and TVI were calculated. We investigated the relationship between the vegetation indices and aboveground biomass measured at sample-plot level. Based on the results, the relationship between aboveground biomass values and vegetation indices was a linear regression with the highest level of significance for NDVI in all compartments. Since at the compartment level the correlation coefficient between NDVI and aboveground biomass was the highest, NDVI was used for mapping aboveground biomass. According to the results of this study, biomass values were highly different in various climatic and altitudinal classes with the highest biomass value observed in humid climate and high-altitude class.

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Northern forests of Iran are among the most important plant communities in Iran due to their dynamic and diverse vegetation composition and fertile soils. There is little information about carbon stocks of these forests. In the present study, above- and belowground carbon stocks of trees, litter, herbs and soil organic carbon stock at three selected sites of these forests were calculated using random plots and non-destructive sampling. The FAO method was used for carbon estimation of trees and Walkley-Black method was used for soil carbon stock and carbon coefficient was estimated directly. The results showed that both the tree carbon stocks and soil carbon stocks increased from east to west with increasing altitude, showing significant differences. The results also indicate that these forests have a high carbon sequestration potential as a green belt across the northern slopes of the Alborz Mountains, when the contribution of the aboveground section was greater than that  of the belowground section (soil and roots) at all sites.