Carbon sequestration and annual increase of carbon stock in a mangrove forest

 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

we show carbon stock is lower in the tropical mangrove forest than in the terrestrial tropical forest and their annual increase exhibits faster turn over than the tropical forest. Variable for above ground biomass are in decreasing order of importance , breast height diameter (d), height (H) and wood density (r). 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 sequestration differs significantly 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 constrains could be the cause of the annual increase in carbon stocks in the Sundarbans mangrove forest in contrast to  the disturbance – recovery hypotheses.

Available online 5 May 2011.

Received 23 December 2010; 

revised 7 April 2011; 

accepted 25 April 2011. 

Atmospheric Enviornment, Elsevier 2011