Sequestrated Carbon: Organic Carbon Pool in the Soils under Different Forest Covers and Land Uses in Garhwal Himalayan Region of India

Abstract

Sequestration of atmospheric CO<SUB>2</SUB> in the soil, as stable soil organic matter, provides a long lasting solution to decrease the CO<SUB>2</SUB> in the atmosphere. The soil organic carbon pool was estimated in forests, tree plantations, horticulture and grasslands in the Garhwal area of Himalayan region which has wide variety of land uses and land cover. The forestry species included <i>Shorea robusta</i>, <i>Cedrus deodara</i>, <i>Quercus leucotrichophora</i>, <i>Pinus roxburghii</i>, <i>Picea smithiana</i> & <i>Abies pi</i><i>n</i><i>drow</i>, <i>Pinus wallichiana</i> and Miscellaneous species. <i>Pyrus malus</i>, <i>Psidium guava</i>, <i>Mangifera indica</i>, <i>Citrus spp</i>. and <i>Lichee chinensis</i> were the major fruit crops and the tree plantations comprised of <i>Eucalyptus spp</i>., <i>Tectona grandis</i>, <i>Dalbergia si</i><i>s</i><i>soo</i> and <i>Pinus roxburghii</i>. SOC pool was<b> </b>the<b> </b>maximum in the forest lands followed by grass lands, orchards and plantation areas. Differences in SOC pool under different land uses were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The forests had 15.84 million tons (78.49 t ha<SUP>-1</SUP>) soil organic carbon pool in this region and <i>P. smithiana</i> & <i>A. pindrow</i> forests had higher mitigation potential as they can store more than double SOC pool as compared to <i>S. robusta</i>. The<i> </i>soils under orchards contained 1.40 million tons SOC pool which is 13.05% of the total SOC pool of the orchards of Uttarakhand state. <i>P. malus</i> had the mitigation potential of 2.71 which indicates that it can have more than double SOC pool as compared to <i>P. guava</i>. SOC Pool in the grasslands was 75.76 t ha<SUP>-1</SUP>.