Carbon at Indian Sundarban

R. Ray, D. Ganguly, C. Chowdhury, M. Dey, S. Das, M.K. Dutta, S.K. Mandal,
N. Majumder, T.K. De, S.K. Mukhopadhyay, T.K. Jana*
Department of Marine Science, University of Calcutta, 35, B. C. Road, Kolkata 700019, India
Abst ract
Here we show carbon stock is lower in the t ropical mangrove forest than in the terrestrial t ropical
forest and their annual increase exhibits faster turn over than the t ropical forest . Variable for
above ground biomass are in decreasing order of importance, breast height diameter (d), height
(H) and wood density ( ). The above ground biomass (AGB) and live below ground biomass
(LBGB) held different biomass (39.93 ± 14.05 t C ha−1 versus 9.61 ± 3.37 t C ha−1). Carbon
accrual to live biomass (4.71–6.54 Mg C ha−1 a−1) is more than offset by losses from litter fall
(4.85 Mg C ha−1 a−1), and carbon sequest rat ion differs significant ly between live biomass
(1.69 Mg C ha−1 a−1) and sediment (0.012 Mg C ha−1 a−1). Growth specific analyses of taxon
density suggest that changes in resource availability and environmental const rains could be the
cause of the annual increase in carbon stocks in the Sundarbans mangrove forest in cont rast to the
disturbance – recovery hypotheses
Citation: Ray, R., et al. (2011), Carbon sequestration and annual increase of carbon stock in a mangrove forest, Atmospheric Environment, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.04.074