Tree carbon stock and its relationship to key factors from a tropical hill forest of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The present study was carried out to understand the relationship of tree carbon stock to key factors such as species richness, density and altitude, in Pachaimalai tropical hill forest located in Tamil Nadu, India. The study area (PTHF) was parted into 24 6.25 km × 6.25 km grids, and at each grid, all live trees ≥30 cm girth at breast height were recorded from a randomly placed 0.5 ha transect. The total carbon stock estimated for the PTHF ranged from 4.79 to 119.00 t ha−1 (n = 24). The species richness, density, and altitude ranged from 12 to 38 species T−1, 260 to 696 trees ha−1 and 209 to 825 m asl, respectively. Regression analysis revealed that the total carbon stock had a significant positive relation with species richness (r2 = 0.703) as well as with altitude (r2 = 0.767), and it had no significant relation with tree density. Understanding the dynamics of tree carbon stocks in relation to key factors is of prime need for sustainable management of forest carbon sinks, and the present study provides valuable information for carbon stock management in PTHF ecosystem, and further it may help to develop testable hypotheses on other tropical forests.