Forest Carbon Stocks in Woody Plants of Mount Zequalla Monastery and It’s Variation along Altitudinal Gradient: Implication of Managing Forests for Climate Change Mitigation

Abstract

Carbon sequestration through forestry has the potential to play a significant role in ameliorating global environmental problems such as atmospheric accumulation of GHG's and climate change.The present study was undertaken to estimate forest carbon stock along altitudinal gradient in Mount Zequalla Monastery forest. Systematic sampling methods were used to collect data from seventy 10 m x 20 m rectangular plots. The area was dominated by Juniperusprocera tree species. The mean carbon stock per hectare was 237.2, 47.6, 6.5 and 57.6 ton for above ground biomass, below ground biomass, litter biomass and soil respectively. The mean total carbon stock in Mount Zequalla Forest was 348.8 t ha-1. The statistical analysis for carbon stock variation in the different carbon pools through altitudinal gradient showed a significant variation with exception for soil organic carbon stock. The amount of carbon stock in above and below ground biomass showed increasing pattern with increasing altitude whereas litter and soil organic carbon stocks showed decreasing pattern with increasing altitude.Overall this study points out Mount ZequallaMonastery forest has the potential to sequester plenty of CO2 with a considerable variation along altitude. Thus, it has paramount importance to give conservation priority to the forests to achieve climate change mitigation aspiration especially through forest carbon sequestration mechanism.

Keywords: Carbon sequestration; Climate change; Altitudinal gradients; Mount Zequalla Monastery; Forest