CARBON STOCK MEASUREMENT OF TREES AND DOCUMENTATION OF PLANT SPECIES AT SHER-E-BANGLA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Carbon stock inside a vegetation plays a imperative part in relieving CO 2 and assurance long-term soundness of carbon in changing situations. The study was conducted to quantify the current carbon stock and documentation of plants in different vegetation sites at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Bangladesh. 72 plots were purposively selected and divided into seven categories viz. residential area, Horticulture and Agroforestry farm land, hall area, academic area, Block plantation, pond side and roadside. Total 731 plants of 60 different species under 32 families was recorded and 92, 360, 118, 41 and 120 plant species were existed in terms of ornamental, fruit, timber, medicinal and plantation crop, respectively. Academic area (229.06±20.31 Mg ha ) had the highest mean carbon stock followed by Block plantation (191.00±48.60 Mg ha 1 ), Hrt. & Afe. farm land (184.22±20.83 Mg ha -1 ), Roadside (163.46±22.73 Mg ha -1 ), Hall area (157.27±14.32 Mg ha -1 ), Pond side (93.00±13.12 Mg ha ) and Residential area (88.15±13.98 Mg ha -1 ). The five major carbon containing species were Mangifera indica (102.53 Mg) followed by Artocarpus heterophyllus (46.34 Mg), Swietenia mahagony (44.42 Mg), Polyalthia longifolia (33.72 Mg) and Albizia lebbeck (19.94 Mg). Mango was found the most predominant tree species with 18.33% (no. 134) followed by Kanthal 8.21% (no. 60), Mahogany 7.93% (no. 58), Narikel 6.84% (no. 50) and Supari 6.02% (no. 44). The mean diversity value of the study area was 1.36 (SWI). Carbon stock had a positive relationship with basal area and mean DBH. Anacardiaceae was the most dominating family with a number of 137 plants and Oleaceae and Lythraceae were the least dominating family with a number of single plant. 49.25, 42.54, 16.41, 16.28, 13.95, 12.58 and 5.61% plants were recorded in fruit, resin plants, plantation crop, latex plants, timber, essential oil plants and ornamental plants, respectively with a total number of 360, 311, 120, 119, 118, 102 and 92. The study shows that the tree species found in the campus make an important contribution in conserving diversity and helps to maintain the carbon stock at the University Campus.

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