Changes in carbon stocks and its economic valuation under a changing land use pattern—A multitemporal study in Konar catchment, India

Abstract

AbstractLand use and land cover (LULC) changes influence the global terrestrial carbon pools and carbon sequestration processes to great extents. Therefore, the understanding of the soil carbon dynamics under the dire pressure of LULC changes is highly necessary. The subhumid tropical catchment of Konar, India, has endured immense LULC transitions over the years and this is likely to promote altered carbon exchanges with atmosphere and, thus, has a significant impact on climate regulation and ecosystem services. Our study analyzed the change in total carbon storage in the past (1992–2004 and 2004–2016) and predicted the future (2030) with respect to the changing land use scenario in the catchment. In addition, the monetary valuation of the carbon loss and/or gain in that area has been performed considering its economic value in the society. The Markov chain model was used in this work in order to predict the LULC map for the future period, and integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade‐offs (InVEST) model was applied to measure the changes in total carbon stocks. The results show that 129,273.75 Mg carbon has already been lost from 2004 to 2016 that is worth of $US 20.06 million ($US 212.69 ha−1), and another 66,050.25 Mg of carbon which is worth of $US 9.73 million ($US 103.21 ha−1) is expected to be lost in future by 2030. A thorough understanding of the carbon scenario of the study area may help to promote feasible mitigation actions to conserve the carbon pools.