Author(s):

Syed Naseem ul Zafar Geelani, KN Qaiser, PA Khan, AH Mughal and Mohit Husain

Abstract: Carbon in the earth system moves between the four major reservoirs: fossil and geological formations, the atmosphere, the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems including forests. Transfers between these reservoirs occur mainly as carbon dioxide (CO₂) in processes such as; fuel combustion, chemical dissolution and diffusion, photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, wildfires and burning of biomass in the open and in furnaces. Human activities are responsible for making changes in carbon stocks in these pools by changing the land use pattern of the area. If a component of the biosphere such as woody biomass shrinks, carbon is released into the atmosphere. If biomass expands, it becomes as sink, and thus removes carbon from the atmosphere. Forests contribute to global climate change through their influence on the global carbon (C) cycle. They store large quantities of carbon in vegetation and soil, exchange carbon with the atmosphere through photosynthesis and respiration. The world forests contain about 830 Pg C (1015 g) in their vegetation and soil, with about 1.5 times as much in soil as in vegetation. Results revealed that total carbon stocks of different land use systems at site A and B followed the trend: Natural Forest-Blue Pine (556.731 t ha^-1), (524.039 t ha^-1) > Plantation forest-Poplar (407.703 t ha^-1),(383.241 t ha^-1) > Agri-silviculture-willow+rice (80.162 t ha-1), (76.092 t ha^-1) > Plantation forest-willow (74.498 t ha^-1),(70.131 t ha^-1) > Agri-horticulture-apple+vegetable-Beans (64.173 t ha^-1), (66.150 t ha^-1) > horticulture-apple alone (61.630 t ha^-1),(64.279 t ha^-1) > agriculture-rice-oats (5.047 t ha^-1),(4.809 t ha^-1) > vegetable-beans-chilli (2.556 t ha^-1),(2.507 t ha^-1) > agriculture-rice-mustard (2.288 t ha^-1),(2.162 t ha^-1) > grasslands (1.195 t ha^-1),(1.124 t ha^-1) > wasteland/uncultivated land (0.877 t ha-1),(0.852 t ha^-1) Similar trends were also seen in carbon sequestration potential of different land use systems

Pages: 949-953  |  1191 Views  333 Downloads

Download (525KB)