Biomass and carbon stock along an altitudinal gradient in the forest of Manipur, Northeast India

Forests are natural storehouses of biomass and store more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem. The relationship between species richness, aboveground biomass and carbon stock at different altitudes can have crucial implications for the management and conservation of carbon sinks. The study was undertaken to assessthe aboveground biomass and carbon stock in ten forest stands along an altitudinal gradient in Manipur, Northeast India. Stand density varied from 128 to 168 trees ha(-1) across the study sites with the highest stand density at higher altitude. The aboveground biomass varied between 124.56 and 254.99 t ha(-1) and carbon stock ranged from 60.09 to 121.43 t C ha(-1) across the study sites. Our results show that there is a significant positive correlation of stand density, aboveground biomass and carbon stock with increasing altitude. This positive relationship could be attributed to less disturbance and the dominance of larger trees at higher altitudes as compared to lower altitudes. Our results could be helpful to devise appropriate strategies in the restoration of degraded forests ecosystems to enhance carbon sequestration and to mitigate climate change.