Estimation of Carbon Content in Some Forest Tree Species

Abstract

A study was carried out in the Forest Research Institute Campus, Dehra Dun to estimate the carbon content of some of the important tree species to have an idea about the responses of these species to the changing climate. The conclusive outputs of this paper are, (i) Pinus roxburghii is storing maximum amount of carbon followed by Pterospermum acerifoIium, Syzygium cumini etc.; (ii) the carbon storing efficiency of some species like P. roxburghii, Shorea robusta etc. is decreasing with increasing concentration of CO₂, This may be due to the fact that biota is currently releasing additional carbon to the atmosphere rather than storing carbon. This new hypothesis, against our general hypothesis that with increasing atmospheric carbon the efficiency of storing carbon will also increase, is a preliminary study and needs much more studies and experiments.