Land carbon budget and sequestration potential of the natural forests of Madhya Pradesh (India)

摘要

The paper presents a carbon budget and future carbon-sequestration potential of the natural forests of erstwhile Madhya Pradesh (India). The forest type classification is based on open- (cover <40 percent) and dense-canopy forest (cover >40 percentand above). Trees contributed 95.72 percent and 93.09 percent biomass towards total biomass for dense- and open-canopy forests, respectively. Bole contributed 75.72 percent and 71 percent biomass for open and dense forests, respectively. Total bole biomass accumulation was 633.363 million tonnes, which was 68 percent of the total biomass accumulation in M. P. forests. NPP_(total) was 6.887 and 3.242 t ha~(-1) yr~(-1) for dense and open canopy forests, respectively. NEP of open canopy forests is 34 percent of dense canopy forests. Litter stocks (t ha~(-1)) were 1.562 for dense and 1.276 for open forests. Total carbon pool (million tonnes) in standing crop was 363.01 for dense- and 80.30 for open-forests. The contribution of litter- and soil-carbon was 9.425 and 167.83 million tonnes, respectively. Dense- and open-forests contributed 247.40 and 56.61 million tonnes bole carbon to the total carbon pool. The carbon flux as NPP_(total) (t ha~(-1) yr~(-1)) was 3.305 for dense- and 1.56 for open - forest with an average of 2.606. NPP_(tree) carbon was 2.024 (dense), 0.625 (open) and 1.464 (average). NEP values for carbon accumulation rate (t ha~(-1) yr~(-1) were 0.531, 0.172 and 0.377 for dense, open, and average of two respectively. NPP_(total) carbon including fine root production was 4.336 t ha~(-1) yr~(-1) while carbon release as heterotrophic respiration was 4.50 t ha~(-1) yr~(-1). It shows that present M.P. forests are the source of carbon. The average rate of carbon accumulation was 1.058 X 10~8 t yr~(-1) during pasv 17 years till 1999. However, since 1988, the store of woody vegetation declined @ 0.365 X 10~8 t yr~(-1). Therefore, forests of M.P. were sink in 1980s shifted to source 1990s. Open canopy forests had great potential for sequestratingmore carbon as they are still sequestrating only 30 percent and 47 percent carbon as total tree and total carbon of total potential.