Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Study of the impact of various land uses involving tree plantations on C dynamics in urban areas of dry tropics

Auteur : Singh,Sunil

Université de soutenance : Banaras Hindu University

Grade : Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Botany 2016

Résumé partiel
1. Land use change apart from having impact on climate change, also has impacts on the dynamics of soil C, biodiversity, the change in ecosystem services in general, and specifically the tropical soils since they are nutrient-limited. Under the growing population pressure and rapid urbanization, the lands under vegetation are not only getting limited but also degrading at the faster pace. In post-urbanization and -industrialization period, a lot of land gets degraded and left as fallow in the urban areas of dry tropics.
2. Serious concerns have been raised for the restoration and rehabilitation of degraded lands in the urban areas of dry tropics, which itself is a greater challenge. Any rehabilitation strategy is considered successful if it fulfills not only the environmental but also the social and economic sustainability. Among the several strategies, plantation of various tree species is considered the ideal measure for rehabilitation of degraded lands in the urban areas of dry tropics. Although there exist a lot of studies concerned with the economic aspects of plantation, little information is available on its role in the rehabilitation of degraded lands in the urban areas, especially in the dry tropics.
3. The objective of the present work was to study the impact of land use change, involving three different land use types i.e. protected natural vegetation, grass fallow (resulting from disturbance of the natural vegetation), and plantations of three different tree species viz. Cassia siamea, Tectona grandis and Jatropha curcas on the degraded lands, on the dynamics of soil microbial biomass, distribution of aggregate size fractions, soil CO2-C flux and soil C storage in the urban areas of dry tropics.
4. This study was conducted for two annual cycles (2014-15) and (2015-16). Out of the five land uses studied, three (Cassia plantation (CP), Tectona plantation (TP) and grass fallow (GF)) were located at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India (25o 15-17’ N latitude, 82o 57-59’ E longitude and at 76 m above the mean sea level altitude). The other two sites, (protected natural vegetation and Jatropha plantation), were located at Diesel Locomotives Works campus, Varanasi, 3-4 km from BHU. The climate is dry tropical monsoonal with marked seasonality.

Présentation et version intégrale (Shodhganga)