Floristic diversity, and conservation status of large cardamom based traditional agroforestry system along an altitudinal gradient in the Darjeeling Himalaya, India

Vineeta,; Sarkar, Biplov C.; Tamang, Mendup; Shukla, Geeta; Debnath, Manoj; Nath, Arun Jyoti; Chakravarty, Sumit

doi:10.1007/s10457-022-00778-z

Cited by 8 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Distribution and composition of vegetation is greatly influence by altitude as temperature decreases with increasing altitude which reduces the diversity and population thus regulating carbon (Shedayi et al, 2016) as altitude was found prime determinant of ecosystem properties and processes in the mountainous regions (He et al, 2016). In our earlier study involving large cardamom-based traditional agroforestry systems of Darjeeling Himalayas we also found diversity and plant population reduced as altitude increased (Vineeta et al, 2022). Additionally, SOC is also influenced by soil structure, species composition, organic matter input (quality and quantity), locality factors (climatic, soil and topographic variables), land use and management (Shukla and Chakravarty, 2012;Simon et al, 2018;Devi and Sherpa, 2019).).…”

Section: Soil Organic Carbon Stockmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…The geographical coordinates of the holdings were recorded with Garmin 72. We adopted a stratified random nested quadrate sampling method laying 1-4 quadrates of size 20 m x 20 m (Vineeta et al, 2022). Holdings with one hectare were laid with only quadrate while, 2-4 quadrates were marked diagonally across the corners.…”

Section: Traditionally Large Cardamom-based Agroforestry Farming In D...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tree biomass and carbon decreased gradually with the increasing altitude classes but the changes were non-significant. Tree biomass stock decreased by 36.99 % from low-to mid-altitude, 20.47 % from mid-to high-altitude and 49.89 % from low-to high-altitude classes due to variation in tree dbh, density and species richness (Supplementary table 2; Vineeta et al, 2022). The contribution of the above ground biomass (AGB) was 80 % at all the altitude classes.…”

Section: Tree Biomass and Carbon Stockmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A few studies from Darjeeling Himalayas evaluated vegetation diversity pattern along the elevation gradient (Das and Ghosh, 2022;Vineeta et al, 2022) while, a few studies also quantified biomass and carbon stock (Banerjee and Prakasham, 2012;Gangopadhyay et al, 2021) but none of these studies examined the effect of altitude on biomass and carbon stock.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, in continuation of our earlier study (Vineeta et al, 2022) where we examined the relationship of species richness, plant population and diversity of the traditional large cardamom-based agroforestry systems in Darjeeling Himalayas with altitude, the present study was executed in the same systems with following specific research questions:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variation in Tree Density, Biomass and Carbon Stock with Altitude under the Large Cardamom-based Traditional Agroforestry System of Darjeeling

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Sarkar,

Tamang

et al. 2023

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It has been reported that the large cardamom-based traditional agroforestry systems in the Darjeeling Himalaya of West Bengal, India represents a sustainable land use system with a high potential to store and sequester biomass carbon. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the changes in tree biomass stock and carbon accumulation of this indigenous system with altitude. The study area was classified into three altitude-classes as low (700–1200 m asl), mid (1200–1700 m asl) and high (> 1700 m asl). The tree biomass and carbon storage for low-, mid- and high-altitude classes was estimated at 630.17 and 296.18 Mg ha− 1, 397.05 and 186.61 Mg ha− 1 and 315.78 and 148.42 Mg ha− 1, respectively. Schima wallichi, Cryptomeria japonica and Cupressus cashmeriana were the most ecologically important tree species based on IVI (important value index) in the low-, mid-, and high-altitude classes, respectively. The IVI and total biomass of the five most ecologically important tree species in low-, mid- and high-altitude ranged from 17.34–26.04, 18.15–37.56, 27.13–42.43 and 9.05-133.75 Mg ha− 1, 1.38–37.43 Mg ha− 1 and 19.0-72.1 Mg ha− 1, respectively. Schima wallichi occurred in all the altitude-classes among the five most ecologically important tree species. In the study area, the average ecosystem carbon storage was estimated at 295.02 Mg ha− 1. The contribution of soil organic carbon to the ecosystem carbon stock increased with the increasing altitude. In contrast, the contribution of biomass carbon to the ecosystem carbon stock decreased with the increase in altitude. The ecosystem carbon stock estimated for the low-altitude class was 36.43% and 45.30% higher than the mid- and high-altitude agroforestry systems. The large cardamom-based agroforestry systems in the Darjeeling Himalayas are thus a prospective carbon sink, both in vegetation and soil due to higher tree densities and natural resource conservation-based traditional farming practices.

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