Monitoring Carbon Stock and Land-Use Change in 5000-Year-Old Juniper Forest Stand of Ziarat, Balochistan, through a Synergistic Approach

Hamayoon Jallat,Usman Tahir,Kamziah Abdul Kudus,Muhammad Fahim Khokhar,Waseem Razzaq Khan,Mohd Nazre,Najam U Saqib

doi:10.3390/f12010051

Abstract

The Juniper forest reserve of Ziarat is one of the biggest Juniperus forests in the world. This study assessed the land-use changes and carbon stock of Ziarat. Different types of carbon pools were quantified in terms of storage in the study area in tons/ha i.e., above ground, soil, shrubs and litter. The Juniper species of this forest is putatively called Juniperus excelsa Beiberstein. To estimate above-ground biomass, different allometric equations were applied. Average above ground carbon stock of the forest was estimated as 8.34 ton/ha, 7.79 ton/ha and 8.4 ton/ha using each equation. Average carbon stock in soil, shrubs and litter was calculated as 24.35 ton/ha, 0.05 ton/ha and 1.52 ton/ha, respectively. Based on our results, soil carbon stock in the Juniper forest of Ziarat came out to be higher than the living biomass. Furthermore, the spatio-temporal classified maps for Ziarat showed that forest area has significantly decreased, while agricultural and barren lands increased from 1988 to 2018. This was supported by the fact that estimated carbon stock also showed a decreasing pattern between the evaluation periods of 1988 to 2018. Furthermore, the trend for land use and carbon stock was estimated post 2018 using a linear prediction model. The results corroborate the assumption that under a business as usual scenario, it is highly likely that the Juniperus forest will severely decline.

Highlights

The present forest area of the world is 4.06 billion ha and it has lost 178 million ha of forest since 1990, presenting a decrease of 4.2% [1]
In 2015, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) reported 1.9% or about 1,472,000 ha of forest area in Pakistan. This translates to a loss 2,728,000 ha of the forest cover, which has been documented by the Pakistan Forestry Outlook study in 2009 and the Forest Resource Assessment in 2015
Forest area, which is the major focus of the study decreased from 21.5% in 1988 to 15.5% in 2018 showing a decrease of 6% in the total area

Summary

Introduction

The present forest area of the world is 4.06 billion ha and it has lost 178 million ha of forest since 1990, presenting a decrease of 4.2% [1]. With approximately 5% of the land area under forest, Pakistan finds its place among the low-forested countries in the world [2,3,4]. In 2015, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) reported 1.9% or about 1,472,000 ha of forest area in Pakistan. This translates to a loss 2,728,000 ha of the forest cover, which has been documented by the Pakistan Forestry Outlook study in 2009 and the Forest Resource Assessment in 2015. There is a declining trend in the forest cover while agricultural and urban areas are expanding [7]

Methods

Results

Conclusion