Vol. 12, Special Issue 11 (2023)

Author(s):
Rachana and AG Koppad

Abstract:
Forest plays a vital role in mitigation and adaptation to ongoing climate change. A substantial portion of this carbon is sequestered in the above-ground biomass, underscoring their critical contribution to the global carbon cycle and their role in regulating the Earth's bio spheric climate. The forest biomass changes according to site factors human interference such as natural forest or plantation forests and open or closed forests. The effective method of biomass estimation at regional level has a significant importance to mitigate ongoing global warming and climate change. In this context the biomass was estimated in dry, moist deciduous and semi evergreen forests of Yellapur forest division by laying the permanent plots of size one ha (100 m×100 m). The biomass was estimated using non-destructive method. The above ground biomass of semi evergreen forest showed maximum above ground biomass (325.14 t ha^-1) which is statistically higher than dry deciduous forest type (180.67 t ha^-1). The semi-evergreen forest exhibited the highest below ground biomass with a value of 84.53 t ha^-1, statistically higher than the dry deciduous forest type. The total biomass distribution which is the addition of above ground biomass and below ground biomass across different forest types where the semi-evergreen forest type displayed the highest total biomass of 409.68 t ha^-1, the minimum total biomass in the dry deciduous forest. The highest total biomass accumulation in semi evergreen forest is due to availability of moisture and green leaf flush throughout the year. The larger and buttressed trees in the semi evergreen forest holds maximum biomass. The lesser biomass accumulation in dry deciduous forest is because of moisture stress in the tree and also tree remains leaf less for short period of time. It is evident from the results that the semi evergreen forest accumulates higher biomass therefore, conservation strategies need to be imposed on such forest in order to mitigate ongoing climate change.