SOIL CARBON SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL OF DIFFERENT LAND USE AND LAND COVER SYSTEMS IN EASTERN PLATEAU AND HILLS AGROCLIMATIC ZONE OF INDIA

With the advent of industrialization and the rapid progress in developmental activities, the emission of carbon dioxide in to the atmosphere has amplified and with it has increased the demand of carbon sequestration. Soil is considered as a major carbon pool and hence is considered very strongly as a potent system for carbon sequestration. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential for carbon sequestration in the soil as a means of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The study was taken up inside the Sambalpur University campus in four land use systems viz. pasture land, forest land, agricultural land and garden soil at three soil depths (0 - 10, 10 - 20 and 20 - 30 cm) to analyze for the organic carbon content, bulk density and Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock of the respective land uses. The result indicated that the OC varied with different depths in various land use system and was found to be in following sequence: forest land > garden soil > pasture land > agricultural land. Bulk density was also found to be negatively correlated with the OC and hence had a following sequence: agricultural land > pasture land > forest land > garden soil. The calculated SOC stock was found to be highest in forest land (38.97 t/ha) followed by pasture land (32.15 t/ha), garden soil (28.17 t/ha) and agricultural land (27.91 t/ha). From the above result it can be inferred that natural forest land plays an important role in sequestering atmospheric carbon and helps in mitigating climate change than the other man engineered land use systems.