Author(s)

Soibam Lanabir Singh, Uttam Kumar Sahoo^*, Anudip Gogoi, Alice Kenye

Department of Forestry, School of Earth Sciences & Natural Resource Management, Mizoram University, Aizawl, India.

Land use change activities have greatly affected the total ecosystem carbon stock (TECS) and also contribute to global change through emission of greenhouse gases. The present study assessed the change in vegetation biomass carbon stock (VBCS) and soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) following conversion in major land use sectors (agriculture, agroforestry, forest and plantation) in Mizoram, Northeast India. SOCS was the highest in agroforestry (50.85 Mg C ha^-1) and the lowest in agriculture (33.99 Mg C ha^-1). VBCS was the highest in plantation (131.66 Mg C ha^-1) and the lowest in agriculture (7.44 Mg C ha^-1). The highest positive TECS change rate was observed when agriculture was converted to plantation (6.61 Mg C ha^-1·yr^-1), while negative rate of change in carbon stock was observed following the establishment of agriculture from other land use. A positive rate of change was observed in both VBCS and SOCS with TECS rate of 3.58 Mg C ha^-1·yr^-1 when agriculture got converted to agroforestry. The absolute carbon stock change rates were higher in VBCS than SOCS signifying the importance to maintain tree based vegetation cover.

Land Use Change, Soil Organic Carbon Stock, Vegetation Biomass Carbon Stock

Singh, S. , Sahoo, U. , Gogoi, A. and Kenye, A. (2018) Effect of Land Use Changes on Carbon Stock Dynamics in Major Land Use Sectors of Mizoram, Northeast India. Journal of Environmental Protection, 9, 1262-1285. doi: 10.4236/jep.2018.912079.