Elevational behaviour on dominance–diversity, regeneration, biomass and carbon storage in ridge forests of Garhwal Himalaya, India

Tree carbon stock and its relationship to key factors from a tropical hill forest of Tamil Nadu, India

“…In the present study, the tree carbon stock had a significant positive relation with altitude of forest location (r 2 = 0.767, Figure 4), which is similar to the trend reported for Shervarayan hills (r 2 = 0.570, Pragasan, 2016). In support of this, a few studies (Alves et al, 2010;Gairola et al, 2011;Sharma et al, 2016Sharma et al, , 2018 have reported that the forest carbon storage positively correlates with increasing altitude. While, in some other cases, no relation between tree carbon stock and altitude was observed (Bodamalai hills, r 2 = 0.365; Chitteri hills, r 2 = 0.399; Kolli hills, r 2 = 0.469) in south India (Pragasan, 2016).…”

“…Understanding the relationship of tree species richness and carbon storage in forests is vital for the sustainable functioning of ecosystem services. The variation in species diversity is connected to many ecological gradients like temperature, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, solar and UV-B radiation, wind velocity that change consistently with elevations (Sharma et al, 2018). However, tree species richness has the potential to alter the rate of carbon sequestration and to mitigate the effects of climate change (Diaz et al, 2009).…”

“…Hence, it is most important to understand the dynamics of carbon stocks in relation to the key factors for sustainable management of forest carbon sinks. To my knowledge, only a few studies have focused on how species richness, density, and altitude are influencing on forest carbon stocks (Aryal et al, 2018;Mwakisunga & Majule, 2012;Nakakaawa et al, 2010;Sharma et al, 2018;Shirima et al, 2015). Further, no similar study was undertaken in Pachaimalai tropical hill forest (PTHF) in India so far.…”

Regeneration Patterns of Tree Species Along an Elevational Gradient in the Garhwal Himalaya

“…Forest structure and composition in the Himalayan region are mainly driven by elevation and climate (Vetaas 2000;Sharma, Mishra, et al 2016b;Sharma et al 2017Sharma et al , 2018, and future changes in climate are projected to cause changes in vegetation distribution (Gao et al 2017). As elevation changes, geographical and climatic conditions change sharply (Bandopadhyay 2016).…”

“…Therefore, elevational gradients are powerful natural experiments for testing the ecological and evolutionary responses of forests to environmental changes (Cui et al 2005;K€ orner 2007). Although changes in species composition, distribution, diversity, and community structure along elevational gradients have been well documented (Guo et al 2013;Sharma et al 2017Sharma et al , 2018, regeneration dynamics have been insufficiently quantified to date, although such data are crucial to assess the role of climate change and species shift in high-mountain forests (Sharma et al 2014).…”