Carbon is a critical element that trees accumulate and use to support their structure and sustain physiological processes. Besides being a key element in forest ecosystems, carbon is also essential for sustaining life on a global scale. The study attempted to quantify carbon per cent in different tree components of Cedrus deodara, Fraxinus floribunda and Ulmus wallichiana,an important tree species of Kashmir valley were planted in plantation block of Faculty of Forestry at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar way back in 1992. The soil organic carbon pool under these tree species was also estimated. This information however is poor and fragmented as no published literature is available in this region. Statistical analysis of the data reveals that carbon per cent was significantly higher in Cedrus deodara (45.41%) followed by Fraxinus floribunda (41.36%) and Ulmus wallichiana (40.78%) respectively. Besides the soil attributes like organic carbon and bulk density were also determined and the same were used for preparing the carbon pool inventory. The pooled results revealed that organic carbon was significantly higher in Ulmus wallichiana (2.08%) as compared to Cedrus deodara (1.86%) and Fraxinus floribunda (1.53%). However the bulk density was significantly higher in Fraxinus floribunda (1.26 gcm -3 ) as compared to Cedrus deodara (1.24 gcm -3 ) and Ulmus wallichiana (1.20 gcm -3 ). Moreover the soil organic carbon pool was significantly higher in Ulmus wallichiana (75.04 t ha -1 ) as compared to Cedrus deodara (69.37 t ha -1 ) and Fraxinus floribunda (57.82 t ha -1 ).

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The Kashmir Himalaya, known for its indigenous and endemic flora, also provides home to a large number of exotic plants, which exhibit a wide taxonomical and distributional stretch. Although, some preliminary studies have been carried out in the region on some aspects of its exotic flora, the inventorization and documentation of its exotic have received a little or negligible attention. There is a lot of scope of these exotic plant species in Kashmir valley, but lack of authentic identification has been as a big hurdle in their scientific management. It is in this backdrop that the present floristic study was carried out to identify, inventorize, document and characterize the exotic plant species grown in the Valley. The present study has revealed that Kashmir Valley grows 317 exotic plant species, which belong to 209 genera in 85 families. Dicotyledons are the largest group, represented by 252 species in 163 genera and 67 families. Monocotyledons comprise 52 species in 37 genera and 13 families. Gymnosperms are the smallest group, with 13 species distributed in 9 genera and 5 families. Asteraceae is the largest family containing 33 exotic species.

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