Oxygen Production and Carbon Capturing Capacity of Various Tree Species in Coimbatore City, India

Abstract

Climate change, environment pollution, rapid urbanization and industrialization have been recognized as major environmental threats of the present-day scenario. These environmental issues cause severe socio-economic implications across the globe. The living space and human settlements are increasing rapidly in urban areas of India. Simultaneously the existing green cover and tree population are declining in the name of developments. Trees are considered to be one of the important assets in cities, they provide myriad benefits. Considering the importance of trees the cities and their role in reducing the pollution besides adding fresh oxygen to the atmosphere, the present investigation focused with the aim of documenting various tree species in Coimbatore city and to assess their carbon capturing and oxygen release potential. There are about 58 tree species comprising of 27 families, that have been documented and classified into four age classes. Further these tree species were subjected to total biomass, carbon stock, CO2 (eq.), net carbon sequestration and net oxygen release assessment using standard non-destructive method. Among the 58 tree species studied, Albizia lebbeck (2.745 ton tree-1year-1), Tamarindus indica (2.156 ton tree-1year-1), Parkia biglandulosa (1.921 ton tree-1year-1), Delonix regia (1.027 ton tree-1year-1), Kigelia Africana (1.009 ton tree-1year-1), Peltophorum pterocarpum (1.006 ton tree-1year-1), Ficus religiosa (0.906 ton tree-1year-1), Leucaena leucocephala (0.804 ton tree-1year -1) of net oxygen were found to release, Pterospermum acerifolium (0.827 ton tree-1year-1) and Azadirachta indica (0.804 ton tree-1year-1) were found to release high oxygen with more carbon capturing capacity.