Carbon stock and sequestration dynamics under Oil palm plantations in tamil nadu

Abstract

Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a tropical perennial tree crop which provides crude newlinepalm oil (CPO) as edible oil source of economic importance that accounts for yield of newline4 - 5 t oil ha-1 year-1 with the global area of 18.7 million hectares. The anthropogenic newlineactivities hikes atmospheric carbon di oxide levels up to 417.66 ppm in 2021. The agro newlineforestry crops enhance the build-up of terrestrial carbon pools and sequestration of carbon newlineby biological processes. The oil palm plantations possess highest biomass production, newlinesequesters carbon in trunks, fronds, fruit bunches and root biomass. The carbon newlinesequestration rates ranged from 44.4 to 72.1 Mg C ha-1 between 11 29 years of palms newlinewith a fresh fruit yield equal to oil production of 10-13 t ha-1 year-1 under favorable newlineenvironmental conditions and it enriches soil organic matter which also regulates microclimate newlineby increased O2 production and higher CO2 absorption from the atmosphere. In India oil palm newlineplantations extend up to 3.3 lakh hectares whereas in Tamil Nadu the area under cultivation is newlinearound 30,900 hectares with the annual production of 16,25,463 metric tonnes of fresh fruit newlinebunch and 2,70,322 metric tons of Crude Palm Oil (CPO). newlineThe study was conducted in oil palm plantations representing three different zones newlineof Tamil Nadu pertaining to different age groups of four, and fifteen years old oil palm newlineplantations viz., Semmedu, Coimbatore district (foothills of Western Ghats), Bommaiya newlinegoundenpatti, Theni district (Cumbum valley) Marungulam, Thanjavur district (Cauvery newlinedelta) for investigation on Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) yield and carbon sequestration. The total newlinebiomass in four, eight and fifteen years oil palm plantations 276.3, 787.07 and 1444.1 kg palm-1, newlinerespectively. The average total carbon stock of above ages of plantations were found to be newline19.66, 56.28 and 103.25 Mg C ha-1 with the total CO2 sequestration potential of 72.44, 206.36 newlineand 378.63 Mg ha-1, respectively. newlineThe oil palm tends to form biogenic silica in the fronds and fruit bunches. The newlineechina