Pattern of forest recovery and carbon stock following shifting cultivation in Manipur, North-East India

Abstract

Shifting cultivation has resulted in large-scale deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics; however the abandoned fallows are known to have high potential for carbon capture. The paper is an attempt to determine the forest recovery patterns following shifting cultivation by evaluating the tree species composition, diversity and abundance with respect to topographical factors in Manipur, India. We also used ordination analysis to understand the change in species composition with regard to environmental variables. The living woody biomass carbon of each fallow was quantified, and the factors affecting the recovery of carbon stock along an increasing fallow gradient was assessed. Our results showed that the species richness and basal area recovered relatively with time since abandonment, and the north-facing lower elevation fallow sites displayed higher species richness and stem density than those in higher elevations. Environmental variables had no impact on the regeneration of Elaeocarpus floribundus Blume and Castanopsis hystrix Hook. f. & Thomson ex A. DC. which suggests that they may be capable of effective restoration of degraded forest areas. As these species appear naturally in the forests, it would facilitate quicker rehabilitation and reinstate the soil nutrients making the soil reusable in a short term. We also found that fallow age plays a vital role in recovering above-ground biomass carbon from living woody species followed by the aspect of the site. The total living woody biomass carbon ranged from 0.98 Mg ha-1 in 5 years fallow to 142.58 Mg ha-1 in 20 years fallow. The above-ground biomass carbon recovery of the oldest fallow was 39% to 40% of the reference undisturbed forest and the estimated time for the shifting cultivation fallows to reach that of the undisturbed forest level was approximately 39 years to 41 years.

Effect of climate change and deforestation on vector borne diseases in the North-Eastern Indian state of Mizoram bordering Myanmar

“…In this system, the selected forest area is cleared of trees and vegetation, and then burnt to increase the potash content in soil for fertility. Crops are then grown in this land for a limited period of years [54]. The other direct causes of deforestation in Mizoram are fuel wood collection, excessive harvesting/extraction of timber and non-timber forest products [55].…”

Quantifying Tree Diversity, Carbon Stocks, and Sequestration Potential for Diverse Land Uses in Northeast India

“…The rate of carbon sequestration in a habitat is influenced by several factors such as age of the stand/ maturity index, management, and woody species composition (Singh et al, 2018a). The elevation, slope, and aspect could also influence the carbon sequestration rate (Gogoi et al, 2020;Thong et al, 2020). Significantly higher vegetation carbon sequestration in temperate forests (5.51 Mg C ha −1 yr −1 ) and subtropical plantations (5.08 Mg C ha −1 yr −1 ) in the present study could be due to favorable growth of certain species over others, resulting in high productivity in the habitats when one species is dominant.…”

“…It has been established that plantation forestry (Brahma et al, 2017;Singh et al, 2018a;Nath et al, 2018;Kurmi et al, 2020), agroforestry (Tamang et al, 2021), and home gardens (Singh et al, 2015;Singh and Sahoo, 2021) have great potential for carbon sink in the Northeastern region of India. Similarly, secondary forests (accounting for variation in age) play an important role in carbon storage (Gogoi et al, 2020;Thong et al, 2020). One of the basic prerequisites for the accurate estimation of biomass stock at the regional and global scales is the use of appropriate models.…”

Forests, Farms, and Fallows: The Dynamics of Tree Cover Transition in the Southern Part of the Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania

“…Traditional institutions are one of the key success factors in promoting community-led forest management in Tanzania [10]. Sacred forests under community-based forest management (Table 2) were found to be more protected and stable than forest patches that had no traditional significance.…”

“…Nevertheless, the exact impact of swiddens and land use change on carbon dynamics differs with vegetation types and management models [9], and the varying types of swidden techniques used to fell forests, ranging from selective to total clearance, add further complexity. Varying swidden techniques create uncertainties and variability in the rates of deforestation and regrowth, as well as in the carbon density of various land uses throughout the landscapes [10,11].…”