Evaluation Of Potential Storage Of Organic Carbon In Soil And Trees: A Case Study

Rising level of CO2 in the atmosphere is the major impact on global warming. Soil and vegetation acts as a reservoir of carbon which plays a major role in global carbon cycle. Plants intake CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and stored as biomass, later it moved to soil. The aim of the present study is to investigate the storage of carbon in soil and trees present in Bharathidasan University main campus. The study has been carried out in quadrant method by selecting the different sectors randomly which is rich in trees. A total of 10 trees species belonging to 6 families were enumerated. The soil samples were collected and analysed the physiochemical properties and organic carbon content. The morphological and biochemical characteristic of leaves were studied with 10 different trees species. The amount of biomass and carbon stock was estimated using allometric equations by non-destructive method. The significant amount of carbon is stored in sector number 1 with high above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass and soil organic carbon which contains maximum number of trees. The results of this study revealed that the total biomass in the campus (10 sectors) stores 6494 tons/ha. The total amount of carbon stored in the studied sites of University campus is 3245.99 tons of carbon. Among all the family, Fabaceae plays a dominant role in storing carbon within that Peltophorum pterocarpum has potential to sequestrate more carbon dioxide.