Impact of Carbon Stocks of Anogeissus latifolia on Climate Change and Socioeconomic Development: a Case Study of Garhwal
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Impact of Carbon Stocks of Anogeissus latifolia on Climate Change and Socioeconomic Development: a Case Study of Garhwal Himalaya, India Monika Chauhan & Munesh Kumar & Amit Kumar
Received: 28 May 2020 / Accepted: 29 July 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The carbon stored as soil organic carbon (SOC) and tree biomass is typically the highest carbon pool of the forest and is impacted by degradation and deforestation. The impact of “C” stocks on climate change at different altitudes can have vital implications for the conservation and management of “C” sinks. This study was undertaken in subtropical belt of Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India, to understand the carbonstoring potential of Anogeissus latifolia tree and its soil properties in three altitudes, i.e., lower (LA: 790–824 m), middle (MA: 825–960 m), and upper (UA: 1168– 1212 m), which provide fuel, fodder, and small timber for life support purposes. Results of the study suggested that soil moisture and pH increase with increasing depth and altitude, whereas SOC and soil nitrogen show reverse patterns. Moreover, bulk density (BD) does not follow any trend (i.e., BD increases with soil depth and altitude until 960 m and further decreases with an increase in altitude). Tree density, biomass, and carbon stock reported highest in MA compared with UA and LA because of dense forest and greater tree diameter. Looking into the M. Chauhan : M. Kumar Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand 249161, India A. Kumar (*) School of Hydrology and Water Resources, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044 Jiangsu Province, China e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]
soil carbon stock, nitrogen, C/N ratio (C/N: < 10), and climatic drivers supportive to microbial degradation, it is concluded that A. latifolia forest has played an important role in carbon reduction and mitigating climate change at regional and global levels. The study will help environmentalists, foresters, and policy-makers to stimulate the combined effect of degradation of forest species on climate change and socioeconomic development at regional and global scale. Keywords Biomass . Carbon sequestration . Altitude . Subtropical . Forestry
1 Introduction Anogeissus latifolia Wall ex Bedd is a dominant tree species in Himalayas forest (Champion and Seth 1968) and distributed over the tropical and subtropical region of India (except arid climate of North-West and moist climate of North-East). Further, it is recognized to be key species in the subtropical parts of Garhwal Himalayas providing various ecosystem services to people living in the vicinity of Garhwal Himalaya (Kumar et al. 2010; Kumar and Sharma 2016). In the Shivalik Hills and sub-Himalayan regions, pure stands of A. latifolia are dominantly available where it sequestered carbon in adequate ways and played an important role in “C” sink (Luna 2005; Gaur 1999). Forest carbon stock is the quantity of carbon sequestrated from
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