Stand Structure, Biomass and Carbon Storage in Gmelina arborea Plantation at Agricultural Landscape in Foothills of Eastern Himalayas

Abstract

In the modern era, Gmelina arborea plantations are a hotspot of future research because of their high carbon sequestration potential. The present work was conducted during 2018 to 2020 on a young unmanaged Gmelina farm to understand the ecosystem’s carbon and its dynamics. The study area was categorized into three age classes: ≤ 5, 5–10, and 10–15 years. In a plantation, Gmelina trees (10%) were randomly selected while other trees (90%) were also taken into the consideration for ecosystem carbon. A stratified random nested quadrate sampling method was adopted for analyzing other vegetation forms under study. Overall, 51 individual species in the studied Gmelina farm were found which includes 23 tree species, 7 shrub species, 16 herbs, 2 climbers, and 3 species of ferns. The estimated quantitative vegetation parameters and diversity indices indicate that the plant assemblages were heterogeneous with native diverse species evenly distributed with fairly higher densities, frequencies, and abundance. Herbs were the most important species followed by shrubs and trees. Consequently, with the increasing age of plantation, the richness of plant species increased. Soil properties were significantly influenced by the age of the plantation but exhibited no discreet trend. Total biomass density and total carbon density increased with increasing plantation age while no drastic variation was found in available soil organic carbon (SOC) because of insignificant variability in litter production. Total carbon, available SOC (up to 60 cm depth) and ecosystem carbon in the three age class plantations fell in the ranges of 54.51–59.91, 48.18–55.73, and 104.81–110.77 Mg ha−1, respectively. The carbon sequestration potential of Gmelina arborea is higher compared to other reported species and highly supportive of converting unutilized agricultural landscapes to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide in future.

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

“…Basal area is a good predictor for biomass (Gebrewahid and Meressa, 2020) and is often used as a surrogate for biomass and carbon (Balderas Torres and Lovett, 2013). In the present study, basal area was strongly correlated with tree density and with vegetation (AGB + BGB) carbon in line with the findings of many others (Poorter et al, 2015;Salunkhe and Khare, 2016;Amara et al, 2019;Tamang et al, 2021) S1).…”

“…The aboveground biomass carbon storage in the present study was comparable with various studies reported by others in Northeast India, for example, 16.24-130.82 Mg C ha −1 in Assam (Borah et al, 2013), 60.09-121.43 Mg C ha −1 in forests of Manipur (Thokchom and Yadava, 2017), while being lower than the reported value of 460.5 Mg C ha −1 in an old-growth pine forest of Meghalaya (Baishya and Barik, 2011). The estimated total biomass and carbon pool of the Northeast India forest sites are within the range reported from other Indian forest systems (Ravindranath et al, 1997;Chhabra et al, 2002;Devi and Yadava, 2015;Wagner et al, 2015;Gandhi and Sundarpandian, 2017;Solomon et al, 2017;Gogoi et al, 2020;Tamang et al, 2021). Several factors such as the age of the forest stand (Kolh et al, 2017), tree density (Garcia-Vega et al, 2020), diversity, and basal area (Joshi and Dhyani, 2018) influence the biomass and total vegetation carbon.…”

“…Over the last decades, environmentalists and policymakers have become more aware of the vital role that tree diversity plays in combating climate change, and this has prompted them to be more conscious while designing any climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy (Con et al, 2013;Bhat et al, 2020;Sheikh et al, 2021). 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).…”

Variability in Carbon Stocks across a Chronosequence of Masson Pine Plantations and the Trade-Off between Plant and Soil Systems

“…With increasing stand age, plantations vary in vegetation composition and community structure, which may influence the ecosystem C pool [8] by shifting stand densities, litter quality and quantity, and soil nutrients [9]. Previous studies have reported a significant increase in biomass C with plantation age, but no drastic variation, increase, or decrease is found in the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks [10][11][12]. The SOC density in topsoil continued to increase and accounted for 71.0%, 36.9%, 71.4%, and 76.8% of the C density in the plant-soil ecosystem across a 3-, 10-, 25-, and 35-year chronosequence in H. ammodendron plantations [12].…”

Appraisal of Carbon Capture, Storage, and Utilization Through Fruit Crops

“…Fruit cultivation is considered a potential tool of good agricultural practices that might be reduced by the impact of climate change (Rana and Rana, 2003;Jhalegar et al, 2012). Hence, the combination of trees, usually in different systems, increases productivity, improves the nutrient cycle, and helps maintain the ecological balance because of the "biological carbon sequestration potential" (Ospina, 2017;Rana et al 2020;Kumar et al 2021;Rai et al, 2021;Sheikh et al, 2021;Tamang et al, 2021). Given the above-mentioned fact, this review article showed the complete effect of fruit crops on carbon sequestration, that is, the process by which carbon source is taken from the atmosphere and stored in another place.…”