Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

ASSESSMENT OF CARBON BIOMASS OF TREE SPECIES GROWING IN INDUSTRIAL AND TRAFFIC DENSITY AREAS

D. Gopamma, K. Jagadeeswara Rao, K. Suresh Kumar and N. Srinivas

Abstract

The increase in transportation and urban activities are responsible to increase in air pollutants in atmosphere specifically carbon dioxide. Plants play an important role to sink or remediate atmospheric carbon dioxide in ecosystem. Plants assimilate CO2 during photosynthesis process and store in plant tissues results increase in biomass with growth in different plant parts. The carbon assimilation potential of trees varied with type of plant. Green plants perform as living filters to absorb and accumulate pollutants from atmosphere without causing any physiological or foliar damage to plants that result in improvement of air quality. In this study, carbon biomass of trees species growing in different environmental backdrops were evaluated. In all the study areas the tree average DBH , height and carbon biomass of species were observed minimum in Nerium oleander and maximum in Ficus benghalensis. The average DBH reduction is more in industrial area over control in all the species. Among the species, Eucalyptus citriodora, Tamarindus indica, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Azadirachta indica, Bauhinia purpurea and Pongamia pinnata species are reported with considerable carbon biomass and suitable for plantation.