Abstract
Forest carbon monitoring and reporting are critical for informing global climate change assessment. The regional estimates of forest carbon attached greater attention, to assess the role of forest in carbon mitigation. Here using field inventory, we examined the carbon sink and mitigation potential of monospecific Deodar forest in the Kumrat valley, of Hindu Kush Himalaya, Region of Pakistan, at a different elevation. The elevation of monospecific Deodar forest ranges from 2300 to 2700 m (a.s.l). We divided the forest into three elevation classes (that is 2300 - 2400 m (EI) 2400 - 2500 m (EII) and 2500 - 2700 m (EIII) a.s.l respectively). In each elevation class, we laid out 09 sample plots (33*33 m2) for measuring carbon values in living tree biomass (LT), soil (SC), litter, dead wood, cone (LDWC) and understory vegetation (USV). Our results showed that the carbon density at EI was 432.37 ± 277.96 Mg·C-1, while the carbon density at EII and EIII was 668.35 ± 323.94 and 1016.79 ± 542.99 Mg·C-1 respectively. Our finding revealed that the carbon mitigation potential of the forest increases with increasing elevation. Among the different elevation classes, EIII stored significantly higher carbon due to the dominance of mature, old age, larger trees, and the minimum anthropogenic disturbance, whereas EI stored statistically lower carbon because of maximum anthropogenic disturbance, which resulted in the removal of mature and over-mature trees. Furthermore, our correlation analysis between tree height and carbon stock and basal area and LT carbon, underlines that the basal area is the stronger predictor of LT carbon estimation than height. Overall our results highlight that deodar forest stored 716.94 ± 462.06 Mg?C·ha-1. However, the rehabilitation, preservation and sustainable management of disturb forest located at a lower elevation could considerably improve carbon mitigation potential.
Highlights
The increased emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) since the industrial revolution significantly influenced the global environment
Our finding revealed that the carbon mitigation potential of the forest increases with increasing elevation
It can be seen from the table that in EI and EII about 66% to 70% trees are found in lower and middle diameter classes while in EIII about 40% trees are found in same diameter classes and the rest of trees are distributed in the upper diameter classes
Summary
The increased emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) since the industrial revolution significantly influenced the global environment. The growing concern of environmental changes because of climate change, the problem of carbon balance, the major GHG, is important and the removal of carbon and their storage in different terrestrial ecosystems for cutting down the increased level of carbon dioxide are required (Ardo & Olsson, 2004). Forest carbon measurement and their management are critical for informing climate change (Kramer et al, 2015). Change scenario and their mitigation concern at national and international level, carbon management through forest attached greater value (FAO, 2010). To address the challenge of global climate change the IPCC and UNFCC are working at the regional and international level. The ecology regarding the species composition, stand structure and population dynamics has been worked out but, the carbon storage and mitigation services of the deodar community have been not studied yet. It is expected that the present work would provide information regarding the current status and carbon dynamics but will be helpful in the managing of forest for carbon and future carbon dynamics trend of deodar community in the region
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