Abstract
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
Highlights
Trees play a vital role in mitigating the diverse effects of environmental carbon degradation and increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
The data indicates that carbon per cent was significantly more in Cedrus deodara (45.41%) as compared to Fraxinus floribunda (41.36%) and Ulmus wallichiana (40.78%)
Cedrus deodara among the three tree species recorded the maximum carbon percent and it was followed by Fraxinus floribunda and Ulmus wallichiana respectively
Summary
Trees play a vital role in mitigating the diverse effects of environmental carbon degradation and increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Tree based land use practices could be viable alternatives to store atmospheric carbon dioxide due to their cost effectiveness, high potential of carbon uptake and associated environmental as well as social benefits (Dhruw et al, 2009). Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the past few decades has drawn the attention of the scientific community towards the process of carbon storage and soil organic carbon store. Soil plays an important role in the carbon cycle by storing it in the form of soil organic carbon. The detritus is decomposed and forms soil organic carbon by microbial process (Post and Kwon, 2000). The carbon held in the upper profile is often the most chemically decomposable and directly exposed to natural and anthropogenic disturbances
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