Carbon Stock and Regeneration Status of Two Community Forests of Dhangadhi, Nepal
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Boatany
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.
Key words: Sequestration, Shorea robusta, seedling, sapling, soil moisture
Description
Keywords
Sequestration, Shorea robusta, Seedling, Soil moisture