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Advance methodological approaches for carbon stock estimation in forest ecosystems

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Abstract

The forests are a key player in maintaining ecological balance on the earth. They not only conserve biodiversity, reduce soil erosion, and protect watersheds but also promote the above and below-ground ecosystem services. Forests are known as air cleaners on the planet and play a significant role in mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere. As per programs launched in the Conference of Parties (COP) 26, there is a need to promote policies and programs to reduce the atmospheric carbon (C) through the forest ecosystem; it is because forests can capture the atmospheric CO2 for a long time and help to achieve the goals of net-zero emission CO2 on the earth. Therefore, there is an urgent need to know the advanced technological approaches for estimating C stock in forest ecosystems. Hence, the present article is aimed at providing a comprehensive protocol for the four C stock estimation approaches. An effort has also been made to compare these methods. This review suggests that tree allometry is the most common method used for the quantification of C stock, but this method has certain limitations. However, the review shows that accurate results can be produced by a combination of two or more methods. We have also analyzed the results of 42 research studies conducted for C stock assessment along with the factors determining the amount of C in different types of forests. The C stock in vegetation is affected by temporal and spatial variation, plantation age, land use, cropping pattern, management practices and elevation, etc. Nevertheless, the available results have a large degree of uncertainty mainly due to the limitations of the methods used. The review supports the conclusion that the uncertainty in C stock measurements can be addressed by the integration of the above-mentioned methods.

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Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Abbreviations

GHGs:

Greenhouse gases

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

C:

Carbon

CDM:

Clean development mechanism

UNREDD:

United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

YR or yr:

Year

YRS or yrs:

Years

DBH:

Diameter at breast height

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

SSA:

State-space approach

IRGA:

Infrared gas analyzer

AGB:

Above-ground biomass

BGB:

Below-ground biomass

EC:

Eddy’s covariance

LiDAR:

Light detection and ranging

SAR:

Synthetic aperture radar

DRD:

Discrete return device

GPS:

Global positioning system

Mg:

Megagram

Ha or ha:

Hectare

UNFCCC:

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, and DST-SERB and DST-FIST, New Delhi, for providing financial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, 124001, India

    Abhishek Nandal, Surender Singh Yadav & Amrender Singh Rao

  2. Department of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP, 221005, India

    Ram Swaroop Meena

  3. CFAES Rattan Lal Centre for Carbon Management & Sequestration, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, USA

    Rattan Lal

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  1. Abhishek Nandal
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Contributions

Abhishek Nandal: Conceptualization, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft. Surender Singh Yadav: Conceptualization, supervision, validation, review and editing. Amrender Singh Rao: Investigation and data curation. Ram Swaroop Meena: Conceptualization, review and editing. Rattan Lal: Conceptualization, review and editing.

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Correspondence to Surender Singh Yadav.

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Highlights

• Forests are a key player in maintaining ecological balance on the earth.

• Four different methods for carbon stock estimation are described.

• Research studies from different continents were analyzed.

• Tree allometry is the most common used method for carbon stock estimation.

• Accurate results can be produced by a combination of two or more methods.

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Nandal, A., Yadav, S.S., Rao, A.S. et al. Advance methodological approaches for carbon stock estimation in forest ecosystems. Environ Monit Assess 195, 315 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10898-9

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