Standing Tree Biomass and Carbon Stock of Natural Forests in Nainital District of Kumaun Himalaya

Present study deals with the standing tree biomass and carbon stock of natural forests in Nainital, district of Kumaun Himalaya. Uttarakhand the 27th state of the India is located between 28º43-31º27 N latitude and 77º34-81º02 E longitudes. Forests in the region of Uttarakhand are mainly composed of three dominated tree species such as Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) in lower elevation (400-1200m), pine (Pinus roxburghii Sarg. in mid elevation(1200-1800m) and Oak (Quercus spp.) in higher elevation (1400-2700m), which indicates that the forest tree composition changes with the change in altitude and climate in the region. Vegetation analysis was carried out by using quadrat method in each selected forest sites. The tree species were analyzed by using quadrat size 10mx10m in each study forest site. In each tree species were measured at 1.37m. The ecological parameters like tree density, abundance, basal area and IVI of trees estimated in each study forest site. The ecological parameters like tree density, abundance, basal area and IVI of trees estimated in each forest site as followed by Misra (1968). The tree density ranged from 424–796 ind.ha⁻¹. The total basal area of trees ranged between 40.41–49.42 m² ha⁻¹. The estimation of biomass was carried out using the allometric equation for each tree component. The biomass and carbon stock of the trees ranged from 135.43–513.20 t ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and 64.33–243.77 t ha⁻¹yr⁻¹.Based on the findings it can be concluded that vegetation structure, biomass and carbon stock of natural forest need the certain management inputs for their better conservation and development.

@article{bijendra2026,
  author  = {Bijendra Lal, L.S. Lodhiyal and Dhan Kumar Bhatt1},
  title   = {{Standing Tree Biomass and Carbon Stock of Natural Forests in Nainital District of Kumaun Himalaya}},
  journal = {Journal of Bioresearch},
  year    = {2026},
  volume  = {5},
  number  = {1},
  pages   = {7-16},
  doi     = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16949675},
}