Abstract
In the modern era, Gmelina arborea plantations are a hotspot of future research because of their high carbon sequestration potential. The present work was conducted during 2018 to 2020 on a young unmanaged Gmelina farm to understand the ecosystem’s carbon and its dynamics. The study area was categorized into three age classes: ≤5, 5–10, and 10–15 years. In a plantation, Gmelina trees (10%) were randomly selected while other trees (90%) were also taken into the consideration for ecosystem carbon. A stratified random nested quadrate sampling method was adopted for analyzing other vegetation forms under study. Overall, 51 individual species in the studied Gmelina farm were found which includes 23 tree species, 7 shrub species, 16 herbs, 2 climbers, and 3 species of ferns. The estimated quantitative vegetation parameters and diversity indices indicate that the plant assemblages were heterogeneous with native diverse species evenly distributed with fairly higher densities, frequencies, and abundance. Herbs were the most important species followed by shrubs and trees. Consequently, with the increasing age of plantation, the richness of plant species increased. Soil properties were significantly influenced by the age of the plantation but exhibited no discreet trend. Total biomass density and total carbon density increased with increasing plantation age while no drastic variation was found in available soil organic carbon (SOC) because of insignificant variability in litter production. Total carbon, available SOC (up to 60 cm depth) and ecosystem carbon in the three age class plantations fell in the ranges of 54.51–59.91, 48.18–55.73, and 104.81–110.77 Mg ha−1, respectively. The carbon sequestration potential of Gmelina arborea is higher compared to other reported species and highly supportive of converting unutilized agricultural landscapes to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide in future.
Highlights
Climate change is a global concern and forests play a vital role in regulation as they are a viable option for offsetting terrestrial carbon dioxide emissions [1,2]
We found 51 species including 23 tree species, 7 shrub species, 16 herbs, 2 climbers and 3 species of ferns
Amongst the plant species found to be associated with Gmelina plantations of all age classes, herbs were prominently found followed by trees, ferns and climbers
Summary
Climate change is a global concern and forests play a vital role in regulation as they are a viable option for offsetting terrestrial carbon dioxide emissions [1,2]. The accepted viable alternative is trees outside forest (TOFs) in both agricultural and human-dominated landscapes, which will meet timber, industrial, and livelihood demands and effectively and viably facilitate offsetting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with the forest ecosystems [5]. Treebased land use systems including those in the nonforested landscapes such as agricultural land play an important role in global carbon (C) cycling since these are one of the largest C pools which act as a potential C sink and as one of the major sources of CO2 [4]. Wood of the tree is used for fuel wood, paper and pulp making, and is used in other forest-based industries [8]
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