Forest carbon stock and biomass estimation in West Central India using two allometric models

The west central Indian forest ecosystems strongly contribute to livelihood of local human communities as well as climate change mitigation. However, due to the lack of accurate biomass equations and predictive tools, the contribution of these forests towards carbon stock and sequestration remains poorly recognized. At present due to some developmental and mining activities these forests face huge anthropogenic pressure. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to estimate the biomass and carbon stock of forest tree species of west central India to provide baseline information. It will also be useful for measuring the changes after the intervention as well as for future management and conservation. The non-destructive allometric equation approach was adopted to estimate the biomass, carbon stock and carbon dioxide equivalent from total 28 plots of 0.1 ha at seven sites of dry deciduous forests of west central India. In the present study, the results of biomass and carbon stock were calculated by employing two different allometric models. The model with tree diameter and wood specific gravity gave higher estimations of total plant biomass (123.39 – 65.86 Mg ha −1 ) and carbon stock (58.61—31.28 Mg ha −1 ) as compared with model having only tree diameter (108.84 – 55.91 Mg ha −1 ) and (51.70 -26.55 Mg ha −1 ), respectively. We conclude that the allometric model with tree diameter and wood specific gravity was found best suited for these forests. The results also showed the positive relation between tree diversity, basal area and aboveground biomass and carbon stock.