Effects of nitrogen addition on Eucalyptus globulus growth and carbon sequestration potential under various CO₂ climatic conditions

ABSTRACT

The catastrophic and enormous increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas levels leads to global climate change, and an immediate need to investigate the effects of increased CO₂ levels on natural vegetation is complex. The goal of this study was to see how nitrogen addition affected Eucalyptus globulus Labill. species development in both ambient (408 ppm) and different elevated (450 ppm, 500 ppm, 550 ppm, and 600 ppm) carbon dioxide environments with OSC S-1000 L plant growth chamber. In this investigation, nitrogen was added in the form of potassium nitrate in various amounts (0, 25, 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg of soil). The plant’s growth responses (leaf length, leaf width, and shoot length) were investigated. To calculate the carbon content, a multiple regression equation was employed to fit the model. The maximum carbon content value 52.37 ± 0.03% was recorded at 200 mg/kg nitrogen addition level for an elevated CO₂ condition of 600 ppm. The results of this study conclude that the nitrogen addition had a positive impact on the plant growth and carbon sequestration potential of Eucalyptus globulus under ambient as well as elevated CO₂ conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Agroforestry
• climate change
• plant growth
• model fit equation
• carbon content

Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank DST-SERB, Government of India for the financial support for this research work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Author contributions

Dr L. Arul Pragasan, Assistant Professor, the corresponding author contributed by conceptualization, funding acquisition, supervision, and final approval of the paper. Mr K.P. Ganesh is a research scholar who contributed by carrying out the work, data collection, laboratory analysis, and drafted the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science & Technology, Government of India (EMR/2016/003254).