Vol. 10, Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Aarthi P, Maheswari M, Sugumaran MP and Maragatham N

Abstract:
In order to offset the ever increasing emission of greenhouse gases especially CO₂ into the atmosphere and the demand for oxygen, tree cultivation has become more obligatory. Trees are considered to be the major capital assets as they provide myriad of benefits. Being one of the most productive and fastest growing trees on the planet, bamboo potentially acts as a valuable sink for carbon storage. In this context, observations were recorded in the bamboo clumps at TNAU, Coimbatore to assess the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered and oxygen released by Beema bamboo (Bambusa balcooa) plantations. Through non-destructive allometric method, the volume of clump, above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, total biomass, total carbon storage, total CO₂ sequestration potential and total amount of oxygen released from the Beema bamboo clumps were estimated. The results indicated that with the above-ground biomass of 20.45 t ha^-1 yr^-1, the bamboo could able to store 12.88 t ha^-1 yr^-1 of carbon. Also, the amount of CO₂ sequestration was found to be 47.29 t ha^-1 yr^-1 and the amount of oxygen released was quantified as 34.53 t ha^-1 yr^-1. The present study revealed that Bambusa balcooa could be used as a potential tree crop to mitigate the climate change by trapping more amount of CO₂ from the atmosphere and also by generating significant level of oxygen.