Estimation of soil carbon pools in the forests of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Estimation of soil carbon pools in the forests of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan Anwar Ali1 · Muhammad Irfan Ashraf2 · Saeed Gulzar2 · Muhammad Akmal3 · Bilal Ahmad4
Received: 25 May 2019 / Accepted: 18 July 2019 © The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Forest soils have high carbon densities compared to other land-uses. Soil carbon sequestration is important to reduce CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. An effective climate change mitigation strategy involves limiting the emissions of greenhouse gases from soils. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the most forested province of Pakistan, hosting about one-third of the country’s 4.5 × 106 ha forest area. Soil organic carbon in the province’s forests was estimated through a field-based study carried out during 2014–17 covering the whole province. Data was collected from 373 sample plots laid out in different forest types using a stratified cluster sampling technique. The total quantity of soil organic carbon was estimated at 59.4 × 106 t with an average of 52.4 ± 5.3 t/ha. About 69% of the total soil carbon is present in temperate forests. Subtropical broad-leaved and subtropical pine forests constitute 11.4% and 8.8% of the soil carbon stock respectively. Similarly, subalpine and oak forests have respective shares of 5.1% and 5.7% in the soil Project funding: This research is supported by Annual Development Programme (ADP) Project “Carbon Stock Assessment of Forests of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” (No. 487/120577/2017-180). The online version is available at http://www.springerli nk.com Corresponding editor: Zhu Hong. * Bilal Ahmad [email protected] 1
Pakistan Forest Institute, Peshawar 25130, Pakistan
2
Department of Forestry and Range Management, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi 46300, Pakistan
3
Institute of Soil Science, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi 46300, Pakistan
4
Institute of Agriculture Sciences and Forestry, University of Swat, Swat 19130, Pakistan
carbon pool. The lowest carbon stock (0.1%) was found in dry-tropical thorn forests. The highest soil carbon density was found in subalpine forests (69.5 ± 7.2 t/ha) followed by moist temperate forests (68.5 ± 6.7 t/ha) and dry temperate forests (60.7 ± 6.5 t/ha). Oak forests have carbon density of 43.4 ± 7.1 t/ha. Subtropical pine, subtropical broad-leaved and dry tropical thorn forests have soil carbon densities of 36.3 ± 3.7, 32.8 ± 6.2 and 31.5 ± 3.5 t/ha, respectively. The forests of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have substantial amounts of soil carbon which must be conserved for climate change mitigation and maintenance of sound forest health. Keywords Soil carbon · Carbon sequestration · Climate change · Carbon sink · Forests · Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Introduction Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the principal carbon pool in terrestrial ecosystems. The quantity stored depends on several influencing factors, for example, climate, and vegetation type and density, as well as soil characteristics. The rates of biodegradation and decomposition processes also regulate th
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