Current World Environment

Biomass Stockpile of Trees in Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests, Peninsular India

Muthulingam Udayakumar ^* and Johnson Evitex Izayas

¹ Department of Plant Science, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu India

Corresponding author Email: udayakumar@msuniv.ac.in

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.20.1.6

Abstract

The uniqueness, importance and restricted geographical distribution of the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests (TDEFs) flourishing on the coromandel coast of India has drawn the attention of researchers for a decade now and revealed numerous important findings. This work was attempted in few of the hitherto unstudied sites located in Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu, India. The present study- assessed species richness (species ha-1), stem density (number of trees ha-1) and stand basal area (m2 ha-1); quantified above and belowground biomass of trees (Mg ha-1) through allometric equations; and estimated wood density (WD) for selected species of TDEFs which do not have wood density data in published form. The study utilized a pantropical allometric formula. The regression model was applied to trees >5 cm dbh from an inventory of ten forest sites each of one hectare area. Ten TDEFs yielded 54 tree species (>5 cm DBH) across 49 taxa under 25 families. Each TDEF yielded an average of 121.33±27.68 (S.D.) Mg ha-1 aboveground biomass. The results suggest that, these forests significantly accumulate a greater amount of above and belowground biomass than tropical dry deciduous forests of India. This study indicates that there could be a significant biomass carbon sink in more such remnants of this unique forest type.

Keywords

Carbon stockpile; Coromandel Coast; Dry forest; Wood density; Woody plants

Copy the following to cite this article:

Udayakumar M, Izayas J. E. Biomass Stockpile of Trees in Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests, Peninsular India. Curr World Environ 2025;20(1). DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.20.1.6

Copy the following to cite this URL:

Udayakumar M, Izayas J. E. Biomass Stockpile of Trees in Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests, Peninsular India. Curr World Environ 2025;20(1).

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