Carbon Per cent in Different Components of Tree Species and Soil Organic Carbon Pool Under these Tree Species in Kashmir Valley

Carbon is a critical element that trees accumulate and use to support their structure and sustain physiological processes. Besides being a key element in forest ecosystems, carbon is also essential for sustaining life on a global scale. The study attempted to quantify carbon per cent in different tree components of Cedrus deodara, Fraxinus floribunda and Ulmus wallichiana,an important tree species of Kashmir valley were planted in plantation block of Faculty of Forestry at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar way back in 1992. The soil organic carbon pool under these tree species was also estimated. This information however is poor and fragmented as no published literature is available in this region. Statistical analysis of the data reveals that carbon per cent was significantly higher in Cedrus deodara (45.41%) followed by Fraxinus floribunda (41.36%) and Ulmus wallichiana (40.78%) respectively. Besides the soil attributes like organic carbon and bulk density were also determined and the same were used for preparing the carbon pool inventory. The pooled results revealed that organic carbon was significantly higher in Ulmus wallichiana (2.08%) as compared to Cedrus deodara (1.86%) and Fraxinus floribunda (1.53%). However the bulk density was significantly higher in Fraxinus floribunda (1.26 gcm-3) as compared to Cedrus deodara (1.24 gcm-3) and Ulmus wallichiana (1.20 gcm