Soil Organic Carbon Stock Assessment in Two Temperate Forest Types of Western Himalaya of Jammu and Kashmir, India

Javid Ahmad Dar

doi:10.4172/2168-9776.1000114

Abstract

Soil organic carbon (SOC) in the temperate forests of the Himalayas is important to estimate their contribution to regional, national and global carbon stocks. This information however is poor and fragmented in regards to the western Himalayas of India. No published information is available on SOC stock in this region. Carbon stocks were assessed at different soil depths (0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 cm) in Pinus wallichiana (PW) and Abies pindrow (AP) forest types in the western Kashmir Himalayas of India. SOC stocks in these temperate forests were relatively low ranging from 50.37 to 55.38 Mg C ha-1 in the top 30 cm of soils. Significantly greater SOC stock was observed in PW forest type compared to AP forest type. Tree density, shrub density, shrub biomass, herb biomass and forest floor litter were greater in the PW forest type as compared to AP forest type, which could be the reason for greater accumulation of organic carbon in soil. The present study revealed that tree species composition and its associated underground vegetation alter SOC accumulation in the moist temperate forest ecosystems. In addition, environmental parameters such as soil moisture and soil biological activity change soil carbon sequestration potential in moist temperate forest ecosystems.

Highlights

Soil organic carbon is considered to be one of the largest carbon reservoirs of the terrestrial ecosystems and plays an important role in the global carbon cycle [1,2,3]
Based on average global or regional soil carbon densities estimated in Indian forest soils, it has been calculated that our soil organic carbon pool ranges from 5.4 to 6.7 Pg [9,10], while Chhabra et al [11] had estimated that the total soil organic pool in Indian forests in the top 50 cm and top 1 m soil depth were 4.13 and 6.81 Pg, respectively
Tree and shrub density was greater in the Pinus wallichiana (PW) forest type compared to Abies pindrow (AP) forest type (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Soil organic carbon is considered to be one of the largest carbon reservoirs of the terrestrial ecosystems and plays an important role in the global carbon cycle [1,2,3]. Temperate forests ecosystems contain a significant amount of soil organic carbon (C), both globally [6] and regionally [7]. It has been estimated that present carbon stock in the world’s forests is 861 ± 66 Pg C, of which 383 ± 30 Pg (44%) is in soil to a depth of 1 meter [8]. Mountainous cold-temperate areas have high SOC content but large spatial variability, due to variable climate and vegetation [17]. This spatial variability has made it difficult to predict the spatial distribution of SOC in forest soils [18]. The present study was aimed to estimate the SOC stock assessment in two different forest types widely distributed in the Kashmir Himalayas. This study will provide a baseline soil carbon stock data, which helps to assess the plausibility of diverse published inventory data

Materials and methods

Results

Discussion