Above ground biomass carbon assessment using field, satellite data and model based integrated approach to predict the carbon sequestration potential of major land use sector of Arunachal Himalaya, India

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map showing state of Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India and permanent plots.

Table 1. Landsat 8 OLI data characteristics.

Data used	Path/row	Data acquisition month	Wavelength of the band (μm)	Spatial resolution (M)	Swath (km)
Landsat 8 OLI	133/ 40, 134/40, 134/41, 135/40, 135/41, 136/40, 136/41, 137/41	Nov 2016 Jan, 2018	Band 2 – Blue (0.45 - 0.51)	30	185
			Band 3 – Green (0.53 - 0.59)
			Band 4 – Red (0.64 - 0.67)
			Band 5 - Near Infrared (NIR) (0.85–0.88)

Table 2. Vegetation indices used for correlation analysis for spatial mapping of biomass and carbon.

Vegetation Indices	Expression	Author
DVI	DVI = NIR − R	Richardson and Wiegand [31]
NDVI	NDVI = (NIR − R)/(NIR + R)	Rouse et al. [32]
SAVI	SAVI = [(NIR − R)/(NIR + R + L)](1 + L) Where L = 0.5 for intermediated vegetation cover	Huete [33]
ARVI	ARVI = (NIR − RB)/(NIR + RB)	Kaufmann and Tanre, [34]
EVI	EVI = G * (NIR − R)/(NIR + C1R − C2B + L) Where: C1 = 6; C2 = 7.5; L = 1; G = 2.5	Liu and Huete, [35]

DVI: Difference vegetation index, NDVI: Normalized difference vegetation index, SAVI: Soil adjusted vegetation index, ARVI: Atmospheric resistant vegetation index, EVI: Enhanced vegetation index.

Table 3. Community characteristics of the major land use sectors.

Parameters	Major landuse sectors
	DF	MDF	OF	PL	CJH	JH_5	JH
Woody individual	1538	1212	1659	995	50	138	356
Number of species	159	105	120	51	19	24	31
Area surveyed (ha)	2.7	2.2	2.9	1.8	0.5	0.5	0.5
Stand density (stem/ha)	570	550	572	553	100	276	712
Basal area (m^2/ha)	54.26	41.16	22.46	36.42	2.57	9.13	25.8
Simpson dominance index	0.01	0.02	0.02	0.06	0.07	0.05	0.08
Shannon diversity index	4.66	4.26	4.32	3.37	2.65	3.52	3.03

DF: Dense forest, MDF: Moderately dense forest, OF: Open forest, PL: Plantation, JH > 5: Jhum > 5 years, JH < 5: Jhum < 5 years, CJH: Current jhum.

Figure 2. Girth wise density and AGB distribution of major landuse sectors.

Table 4. Component wise biomass contribution in major landuse sectors of Arunachal Pradesh.

Landuse sectors	AGB	BGB	Herbs/seedlings	Shrubs/saplings	Total biomass
DF	332.28	89.71	4.18	25.27	451.44
MDF	246.63	71.52	3.89	23.85	345.89
OF	145.36	42.15	4.22	14.42	206.15
PL	179.31	52.00	4.1	23.13	258.54
JH > 5	149.63	43.39	3.13	7.27	203.42
JH < 5	55.40	16.06	2.13	4.11	77.70
CJH	16.84	4.88	2.25	3.83	27.8

DF: Dense forest, MDF: Moderately dense forest, OF: Open forest, PL: Plantation, JH > 5: Jhum > 5 years, JH < 5: Jhum < 5 years, CJH: Current jhum.

Table 5. Linear regression between vegetation indices (VIs) and Plot based AGB.

Vegetation indices	Pearson's (r)	R^2
DVI	0.57**	0.32
NDVI	0.80**	0.64
SAVI	0.87**	0.75
ARVI	0.90**	0.80
EVI	0.82**	0.67

**0.05 significance level.

DVI: Difference vegetation index, NDVI: Normalized difference vegetation index, SAVI: Soil adjusted vegetation index, ARVI: Atmospheric resistant vegetation index, EVI: Enhanced vegetation index.

Figure 3. Scatter plot between predicted verses observed AGB.

Figure 4. Spatial carbon density map of major landuse sectors in the State.

Table 6. Predicted total vegetation carbon of different land use sectors.

Land use sectors	AGB (A)	Mod_AGB (B)	AGBC (C = B*0.55)	BGBC (D = C*0.29)	HC (E)	SC (F)	TVC (G = C + D + E + F)
DF	332.28	358.64	197.25	57.20	2.30	13.90	270.65
MDF	246.63	268.48	147.67	42.82	2.14	13.12	205.75
OH	145.36	176.84	97.26	28.21	2.32	7.93	135.72
PL	179.31	196.20	107.91	31.29	2.26	12.72	154.18
JH > 5	149.63	228.18	125.50	36.39	1.72	4.00	167.61
JH < 5	55.40	129.11	71.01	20.59	1.17	2.26	95.03
CJH	16.84	54.50	29.97	8.69	1.24	2.11	42.01

Mod_AGB = Modeled AGB, HC = Herb carbon, SC = Shrub carbon, TVC = Total vegetation carbon, DF: Dense forest, MDF: Moderately dense forest, OF: Open forest, PL: Plantation, JH > 5: Jhum > 5 years, JH < 5: Jhum < 5 years, CJH: Current Jhum.

Figure 5. Future carbon stock simulation for selected landuse of the state using CO₂FIX model.

Figure 6. Implications of landuse change on total carbon stock in different landuse sectors

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