Estimation of stored carbon in Sonneratia apetala seedlings collected from Indian Sundarbans

摘要

Sonneratia apetala grows luxuriantly in the low saline zone of Indian Sundarbans. Considering the carbon storing potential of the species we attempted to identify the best fitting allometric equation with stored carbon per unit area by S. apetala seedlings as the dependent variable and biomasses of vegetative parts of the seedlings (leaf, stem, root and total biomass) separately as independent variables. The sampling was undertaken during monsoon 2016 in two selected stations, Chemaguri and Bali island located in the western and central sectors of the deltaic complex respectively, with contrasting salinity profile. Another purpose of this study was to observe the impact of salinity (if any) on the allometric equations of S. apetala seedlings. We observed that common allometric equation can be used (considering stem and total biomasses of the seedlings as independent variable) to predict the stored carbon per unit area in the seedlings growing in different salinity gradient.