Forest Structure, Biomass Productivity, and Carbon Reservoirs in a Dry Tropical Forest of Gudwa, Sakti District, Chhattisgarh, Central India

Abstract

The current study evaluates the forest structure, biomass productivity and carbon reservoirs in a dry tropical forest of Gudwa, Sakti district, Chhattisgarh, Central India during 2025. Within the representative one-hectare plot of Gudwa forest in Central India, ten quadrats measuring 10 × 10 m for tree layers and 1 x 1 m for seedling layers were used to analyze the forest vegetation. The non-destructive allometric equation approach was used to evaluate the biomass, carbon stock, nitrogen storage, and carbon dioxide sequestration of the Gudwa forest of dry deciduous forests in Central India. The tree and seedling densities were found to be 1290 stems ha-1 and 174000 stems ha-1, respectively. The tree layers basal area was found to be 32.85 m2 ha-1. In a dry tropical forest in Central India, the Shannon index (H'), concentration of dominance, evenness index, Margalef's index, and beta diversity were found to be 3.14, 0.18, 1.05, 5.44, and 4.35, respectively. At Gudwa forest sites in Central India, estimates of the total standing biomass, carbon stock, CO2 sequestration potential, and nitrogen storage of tree layers were 322.47±108.18 t ha-1, 135.36±44.97 t ha-1, 496.79±165.03 t ha-1, and 1899.17±631.22 kg ha-1, respectively. At the 0.01 probability level, biomass and carbon storage and CO2 sequestration showed the strongest statistically significant association (R2 values of 0.999). The R2 values for density, biomass, carbon storage, CO2 sequestration, and nitrogen storage were 0.668, 0.660, 0.660, and 0.648, respectively, indicating an insignificant correlation.