Biomass production and carbon sequestration through agroforestry

Abstract

Productivity of any vegetation system mainly depends on biomass production and carbon storage potential in their different components, which are affected by nature and age of plant, and other climatic, edaphic, topographic and biotic factors. In different vegetation systems, the bole/ stem biomass contributed 28 to 86% of total aboveground biomass. The percentage contributions of bole, branch and leaf were 65-76, 14-19, 3-12 for fast growing tree species. In case of other tree based systems stem contributed about 76 to 80%, branch 11 to 29% and leaves 3 to 14% of aboveground biomass. A tree allocates on an average 81.89% to above ground biomass (stem, branch, leaves and litter) and 18.11% to below ground biomass (roots). The available estimates of carbon stored in tree based systems ranged from 0.29 to 15.21 Mg C hayear-1 in above ground and 30-300 Mg C ha-1 upto 1 m depth in the soil. Soil carbon storage potential in agroforestry systems differed from system to system and highest storage potential was observed in homegardens where it stored 119.3 t SOC per hectare.