Carbon Stock and Regeneration Status of Two Community Forests of Dhangadhi, Nepal

Abstract

In Nepal, Shorea robusta dominates the vegetation of the Terai region. This species plays an important role in abating global warming and climate change through conserving atmospheric CO2. Hence, this study is intended to assess the carbon stock and regeneration status of two community forests having different soil moisture condition of Dhangadhi, Nepal. SCF was comparatively dry than MCF. To assess IVI, species diversity, regeneration and carbon stock altogether 40 sample plots (20 plots in each forest) of 20m radii were studied for trees applying stratified random sampling. Within the 20m radii plots, 2 subplots of 5m radii for shrubs and 3 subplots of 2m radii for herbs was laid. Tree biomass was estimated using equation of Chavel et al., (2005) and regeneration was estimated by calculating the density of each species in seedling, sapling and tree phases. Soil samples were collected from the surface up to 20cm depth. Carbon stock of MCF was found higher (92.99t/ha) than in SCF (51.94t/ha) and it increased with increasing soil organic carbon and soil moisture but soil bulk density was found higher in dry SCF (1.43%) than in MCF (1.34%). Similarly, total species diversity was found higher in moist MCF but herbs species diversity was found higher in dry SCF. The index of similarity of shrubs and trees between two forests was found to be quite high. SCF had very good regeneration status with 150625 seedling /ha, 13090 sapling /ha and 649 tree/ha in comparison to MCF. Open canopy of SCF might have favored the regeneration of greater number of seedling, sapling. These result revealed that the ground vegetation and regeneration was high in less dense canopy forest and moist forest had highest carbon stock than dry forest.