Plant and soil carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential in four major bamboo species of North India

With climate change being unequivocal, reducing CO2 in our atmosphere has become a primary goal of international efforts. Carbon sequestration is the process characteristic of the species employed for plantation but depends on the continuous management of the plantation also. Assessment of carbon stocks in vegetation and soil is a basic step in evaluating the carbon sequestration potential of an ecosystem. The present study was conducted to quantify the total carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential in four bamboo plantation systems (Dendrocalamus strictus, Bambusa vulgaris, Bambusa balcooa and Bambusa nutans) in the Terai belt of Uttarakhand, India for two years. The major parameters of the study involved physicochemical characteristics of the soil, structural and functional attributes of microbes, and carbon stocks and carbon sequestration potential in vegetation and soil. Destructive approach was used for biomass estimation. At the end of the study, soil organic carbon stocks in the plantations Dendrocalamus strictus, Bambusa vulgaris, Bambusa balcooa and Bambusa nutans were 106.56 t ha-1, 85.06 t ha-1, 65.40 t ha-1, and 57.28 t ha-1 respectively. With this, the highest carbon sequestration potential was observed in Dendrocalamus strictus plantation soil. The observed average soil respiration (1426.45mg CO2 m-2 hr-1) and microbial biomass carbon (0.212%) were also highest in D. strictus among all species. Carbon stock was found more in biomass than in soil in all bamboo species. Thus, the present study clearly demonstrates that besides being an economic strength bamboo plant have shown encouraging results in the field of carbon sequestration potential also and it can be a better climate change mitigation option because of several environmental benefits.