Research

Life Sciences & Biotechnology

Title :

Assessment and modelling of carbon and nitrogen dynamics in tropical forests of Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh in response to climate change

Area of research :

Life Sciences & Biotechnology

Principal Investigator :

Dr. Javid Ahmad Dar, SRM University, Andhra Pradesh

Timeline Start Year :

2022

Timeline End Year :

2024

Contact info :

Equipments :

Details

Executive Summary :

A major global challenge is the urgent need to bend the curve of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration. Forests offer a great potential for net negative carbon (C) emissions via their net C uptake and, thus, play a role in C mitigation efforts (Canadell and Raupach 2008). Accumulation of C is strongly linked with accumulation of nitrogen (N) due to specific C-N stoichiometric relationships (Zhang et al. 2018; Gundersen et al. 2021). Availability of N increases plant productivity through enhanced photosynthesis, thereby leading to increased C sequestration (Yue et al. 2016). If a forest ecosystem cannot accumulate enough N, its C storage potential will be lowered and it cannot persist for a long time (Hungate et al. 2003; Zou et al. 2021). Therefore, knowledge of forest C and N dynamics is essential to determine whether the sequestered C can be sustained over the long term (Yang et al. 2011). Tropical forest ecosystems are well-recognized for their function as significant C sinks. As per the estimate of Pan et al. (2011), tropical forests around the world store 471 ± 93 Pg C. According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, forest C stocks are categorized into three major pools and five sub-pools: biomass (above- and belowground biomass), detritus (dead wood and litter), and soil (soil organic matter). Growth, recruitment and mortality are the key processes governing C dynamics (Calvo-Rodriguez et al. 2021). Tropical forests have a huge potential for C storage and offer many opportunities for C sink enhancement. To utilize this potential, efficient management of tropical forests is necessary and knowing the carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) mass ratios is pivotal to achieve the same. Climate change effects on C and N dynamics are often complex as they affect ecophysiological processes like photosynthesis and respiration, and detrital and soil processes like decomposition (Scheller et al. 2012). Such changes shift the C and N balance to new equilibria. Concerns over the response of tropical forests to climate change and their ability to sustain and sequester C stocks over time have underscored the importance of long-term monitoring and modelling efforts to assess and predict the trend in C and N dynamics. With this backdrop, it is proposed to monitor, model and compare the C and N dynamics of different tropical forest types in Eastern Ghats in response to different scenarios of climate change. Objectives 1. To compare and analyse the climatic, edaphic and vegetation differences in different tropical forest types in Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh 2. To compare the C and N dynamics of different pools (tree, non-tree vegetation, detritus and soil) in these forest types 3. To model the C and N dynamics of these forests using Terrestrial ECOsystem (TECO) model under different scenarios of climate change

Total Budget (INR):

26,10,340

Organizations involved