Aravind Kumar , Bhim Singh , Shashi Prabha

Abstract

As many as 45 species of trees and 31 species of shrubs were found in the foothill forests of Garhwal Himalayas but without exhibiting domination by any particular species. The trees of Cassia fistula, Haldina cordifolia, Holoptelea integrifolia and Mallotus philippensis were recorded at all the slopes and sites throughout the forests whereas species like Alangium salvifolium, Bauhinia purpurea, B. racemosa, Bombax ceiba, Crataeva nurvala, Dalbergia lanceolaria, Dalbergia sissoo, Ficus palmata, Grewia oppositifolia, Mitragyna parviflora, Moringa oleifera, Ougeinia oujeinensis, Sapium insigne, Stereospermum suaveolens and Trema politoria were sporadic in distribution and were recorded only at a few places in the forests under study. The remaining species were distributed unevenly. Numerically, 35 tree species were recorded in lower forests growing near the riverside, 32 species in the forests of lower/ middle slopes and 33 species at the upper ridges of the hills. The trees of Terminalia bellirica exhibited the highest average circumference (249.12cm), followed by Albizia julibrissin (195.2cm), Adina cordifolia (188.77cm), Alstonia scholaris (162.79cm), Schleichera oleosa (146.39cm), Bombax ceiba (142.12 cm) and Terminalia alata (138.03cm). Minimum average circumference was recorded for Holarrhena antidysenterica (31.78 cm) among all the tree species growing in the forests under study. Among shrubs species recorded in the area, Adhatoda vasica and Murraya koenigii were quite abundant in most of the forests. Maximum similarity among various forests stands, both for trees and shrubs, were between the Similarity Class 60-80%. The absence of Similarity Class below 40% indicated that the forests were not much disturbed.

Keywords

Garhwal Himalayas, Foothill Forests, Distribution of Tree and Shrub Species

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Lal Chand Mehta ¹, Jitendra Singh ¹, P. S. Chauhan ¹, Bhim Singh ¹, R. K. Manhas ²

Affiliations
1 College of Horticulture and Forestry (Agriculture University, Kota), Jhalawar Rajasthan-326 001, IN
2 Department of Botany, Govt. Degree College, Kathua–184104, Jammu and Kashmir, IN

Abstract

The potential of fruit trees to sequester carbon and thereby provide an environmental service remains unexploited. Although not fully understood, CO₂ fixation in fruit orchards is probably higher in comparison to fixation in annual herbaceous crops. The present study was conducted in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan State, western India. A total of 7 trees were harvested to assess the biomass and carbon content in various parts of Citrus reticulata, and derive the allometric biomass equation for future research. The mean aboveground biomass was 10.05±0.03 Kg tree^-1. The average aboveground allocation of biomass was nearly 76% and belowground biomass was 24%. The maximum carbon was stored by fruit biomass (2.10 Kg tree^-1) followed by ischolar_mains (1.42 Kg tree^-1) and branches (1.11 Kg tree^-1). Total carbon stored by 6 yr old C. reticulata plantation was 5.94 Kg tree^-1 and 1.65 t C ha^-1. A total of four biomass models were studied for developing a reliable equation for biomass estimation. All four models were found to be statistically significant (Ftest, P < 0.01) for all the aboveground and belowground plant parts, along with total biomass. Models with diameter as the only independent variable had less bias percentage (bias%) and percentage ischolar_main mean square error (RMSE%) values than the models with diameter and height as the independent variables.

Keywords

Biomass, Biomass Model, Carbon Content, Nagpur Mandarin, RMSE%.

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