Carbon stock in the leaves of some Indian tree species

The state of Uttar Pradesh has been divided into four economic regions namely, western, eastern central and Bundelkhand region. The entire state has nine agro climate zones and the present study area (Kanpur Dehat) falls under central plain agro climatic zone. The district receives 683 mm of average rain fall with the maximum temperature running in between 450 C and 480C during peak of summer. The Kanpur Dehat district occupies the central part of Uttar Pradesh on eastern bank of Yamuna river and encompasses a total geographical area of 3021 sq.km., lying in between 26N to 25 55'N latitude and 79"30'E to 80"E Longitude. The study area was chosen very carefully in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh. This was a plantation of early 1990s (to be very precise 1983 and 1984) on both sides of Kolkata-Delhi National Highway number-2 with multi layering. The total length of the plantation carried out along both sides of the Kolkata-Delhi NH-2 was to the tune of 113.17 km. with the total number of plants to the level of 8266. The left and right side of the plantation along the national highway were 56.8km and 56.32 km respectively. Leaf samples are required for the total carbon estimation of foliage. However, obtaining these materials from the branches of trees was extremely difficult in the study area despite of the fact that all the trees (8266 in number) of the study area were felled. It was not humanly possible to collect all the leaves present in the crown of 8266 trees therefore; twenty-seven species with varying diameter classes were selected for the complete defoliation. Once the trees were felled, all the leaves were collected and it was taken care that while collecting leaves, safety equipment and requisite dresses were put on. Results were quite interesting. The carbon content of all the leaves present in crown in each of the twenty-seven species was found through Walkley-Black method. Some of the fast growing species like C. siamea, D. sissoo, F. bengalensis, F. rumphii, A. indica, Eucalyptus spp., S. cumini, A.lebbeck are containing maximum carbon stock in the leaf cells, whereas there are some species namely, Shahtut, Ber, Mango, Imali, Mahua, Desi babul, Brachystegia eurycoma and Prosopis which contain minimum level of carbon storage in the leaves. Only two species namely, Ficus religiosa and Cordia dichotoma have been found to contain a little more than 4 kg of carbon in the crown. This was also seen that increase in carbon stock has no relationship with the increment of girth class of the trees in the study area. Therefore, some other factors are responsible for the carbon stock in the leaves.