Biomass and Carbon Stock Estimation of Udawattakele Forest Reserve in Kandy District of Sri Lanka

Carbon dioxide has gained lot of attention in recent past as a greenhouse gas, and therefore it has a potential to affect the climate pattern of the world. Several anthropogenic activities are known to be responsible for the increased level of carbon in the atmosphere and disruption of the global carbon cycle. However, nature has its own mechanism of sequestering and storing the carbon in its “reservoirs”. Forest has the ability to sequester carbon in their biomass and reduce the rate of increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The carbon sequestered in the forest trees are mostly referred to as the biomass of a tree or a forest. It has been identified five carbon pools of the terrestrial ecosystem, involving biomass. The study was designed to estimate biomass stock and then the carbon stock of the Udawattakele Forest Reserve (7°17'58 "N, 80°38'20’’E) in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Allometric equations were used to calculate biomass of trees. The total biomass stock was estimated to be 9475.56 t ha-1 (Mega gram-Mg) and the total carbon stock was estimated to be 4,453.55 t ha-1 (Mg) in the Udawattakele Forest Reserve (UFR). This amount is equivalent to 16,344.52 Mg of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. UFR holds a moderate amount of biomass/carbon stock and the total carbon density of natural forest and plantations was found to be 36.55 Mg ha-1 and 44.89 Mg ha-1 respectively

Multi-Decadal Forest-Cover Dynamics in the Tropical Realm: Past Trends and Policy Insights for Forest Conservation in Dry Zone of Sri Lanka

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Assessment of Mangrove Restoration Potential in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka for Climate Change Mitigation

Over the geological time, the planet's climate has been changing constantly, with large variations in global average temperatures. Millions of people are already suffering as a result of natural disasters worsened by climate change. The Paris Agreement is an international climate change treaty, and countries will present their climate action plans, referred to as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In response to the Paris Agreement, Sri Lanka presented NDCs in 2016. In which the coastal and marine sector has a restoration target of 10,000 ha of mangroves as a coastal greenbelt with mitigation co-benefits. However, identification of potential lands for such restoration of mangroves has not been done. Therefore, identification of potential areas for mangrove restoration is most important because mangroves cannot be restored where they were not previously existed. The main objective of this research therefore was to identify potential areas for mangrove restoration within the North-Western Province. Identification of potential lands in North-Western Province were done by using Google Earth Pro and ArcGIS 10.2.2. Most important physicochemical parameters such as salinity, pH, soil organic matter content, soil water holding capacity were analyzed under laboratory conditions, samples were obtained by different sites of mangrove habitats. Soil salinity, pH were measured by using calibrated multiparameter. The loss of ignition method for soil organic matter content and a customized method for soil water holding capacity were used. All parameters were subjected to two-way ANOVA in MINITAB 14 after following Anderson Darling Normality test. The mean of soil salinity, pH, soil organic matter content, and soil water holding capacity were ranged respectively; 4.26% to 5.93%, 6.07 to 8.62, 3.40% to 9.31%, and 30.39% to 46.38%. The potential lands for restoring mangroves in North-Western Province were identified in Chilaw, Kalpitiya, Mundel, Panirendawa, Puttalam, Vanathawilluwa and Vennappuwa Divisional Secretariant Divisions. Among them, availability for historical images in Google Earth Pro there were specially chosen areas to restore the mangroves. There is no any significant difference of physicochemical parameters among mangrove habitats and an abandoned shrimp farm where there were previously mangrove plants existed. Hence, abandoned shrimp farms and salterns can be used to restore the mangrove plants and the assisted natural regeneration of mangroves in suitable abandoned shrimp farms by way of facilitating hydrology to be explored as the best option for mangrove restoration. Keywords: Mangrove restoration, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), Assisted natural regeneration, Areas suitable for mangrove restoratio

Biomass and Carbon Stock Estimation of Udawattakele Forest Reserve in Kandy District of Sri Lanka

Carbon dioxide has gained lot of attention in recent past as a greenhouse gas, and therefore it has a potential to affect the climate pattern of the world. Several anthropogenic activities are known to be responsible for the increased level of carbon in the atmosphere and disruption of the global carbon cycle. However, nature has its own mechanism of sequestering and storing the carbon in its “reservoirs”. Forest has the ability to sequester carbon in their biomass and reduce the rate of increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The carbon sequestered in the forest trees are mostly referred to as the biomass of a tree or a forest. It has been identified five carbon pools of the terrestrial ecosystem, involving biomass. The study was designed to estimate biomass stock and then the carbon stock of the Udawattakele Forest Reserve (7°17'58 "N, 80°38'20’’E) in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Allometric equations were used to calculate biomass of trees. The total biomass stock was estimated to be 9475.56 t ha-1 (Mega gram-Mg) and the total carbon stock was estimated to be 4,453.55 t ha-1 (Mg) in the Udawattakele Forest Reserve (UFR). This amount is equivalent to 16,344.52 Mg of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. UFR holds a moderate amount of biomass/carbon stock and the total carbon density of natural forest and plantations was found to be 36.55 Mg ha-1 and 44.89 Mg ha-1 respectively.</jats:p

Assessment of Mangrove Restoration Potential in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka for Climate Change Mitigation

Over the geological time, the planet's climate has been changing constantly, with large variations in global average temperatures. Millions of people are already suffering as a result of natural disasters worsened by climate change. The Paris Agreement is an international climate change treaty, and countries will present their climate action plans, referred to as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In response to the Paris Agreement, Sri Lanka presented NDCs in 2016. In which the coastal and marine sector has a restoration target of 10,000 ha of mangroves as a coastal greenbelt with mitigation co-benefits. However, identification of potential lands for such restoration of mangroves has not been done. Therefore, identification of potential areas for mangrove restoration is most important because mangroves cannot be restored where they were not previously existed. The main objective of this research therefore was to identify potential areas for mangrove restoration within the North-Western Province. Identification of potential lands in North-Western Province were done by using Google Earth Pro and ArcGIS 10.2.2. Most important physicochemical parameters such as salinity, pH, soil organic matter content, soil water holding capacity were analyzed under laboratory conditions, samples were obtained by different sites of mangrove habitats. Soil salinity, pH were measured by using calibrated multiparameter. The loss of ignition method for soil organic matter content and a customized method for soil water holding capacity were used. All parameters were subjected to two-way ANOVA in MINITAB 14 after following Anderson Darling Normality test. The mean of soil salinity, pH, soil organic matter content, and soil water holding capacity were ranged respectively; 4.26% to 5.93%, 6.07 to 8.62, 3.40% to 9.31%, and 30.39% to 46.38%. The potential lands for restoring mangroves in North-Western Province were identified in Chilaw, Kalpitiya, Mundel, Panirendawa, Puttalam, Vanathawilluwa and Vennappuwa Divisional Secretariant Divisions. Among them, availability for historical images in Google Earth Pro there were specially chosen areas to restore the mangroves. There is no any significant difference of physicochemical parameters among mangrove habitats and an abandoned shrimp farm where there were previously mangrove plants existed. Hence, abandoned shrimp farms and salterns can be used to restore the mangrove plants and the assisted natural regeneration of mangroves in suitable abandoned shrimp farms by way of facilitating hydrology to be explored as the best option for mangrove restoration.&#x0D; Keywords: Mangrove restoration, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), Assisted natural regeneration, Areas suitable for mangrove restoration</jats:p

Elatostema rigidiusculum (Urticaceae), a new species endemic to Sri Lanka

Elatostema monandrum var. rigidiusculum, confined to the Bambarabotuwa Forest Reserve in Sabaragamuwa province of Sri Lanka, is reclassified to the rank of species as E. rigidiusculum. We compare it to the morphologically most similar, E. monandrum. The main diagnostic features of E. rigidiusculum are obovate leaves 0.3–1.5 cm long whose laminae are apically crenate, and the presence of sessile receptaculate involucrate inflorescences in both sexes. The proposed IUCN conservation status of E. rigidiusculum is Critically Endangered (CR).</jats:p

Multi-Decadal Forest-Cover Dynamics in the Tropical Realm: Past Trends and Policy Insights for Forest Conservation in Dry Zone of Sri Lanka

Forest-cover change has become an important topic in global biodiversity conservation in recent decades because of the high rates of forest loss in different parts of the world, especially in the tropical region. While human interventions are the major cause, natural disasters also contribute to forest cover changes. During the past decades, several studies have been conducted to address different aspects of forest cover changes (e.g., drivers of deforestation, degradation, interventions) in different parts of the world. In Sri Lanka, increasing rates of forest loss have been recorded during the last 100 years on a regional basis, especially in the dry zone. However, Sri Lanka needs detailed studies that employ contemporary data and robust analytical tools to understand the patterns of forest cover changes and their drivers. The dry zone of Sri Lanka encompasses 59% of the total land area of the country, ergo, the most extensive forest cover. Our study analyzed forest cover dynamics and its drivers between 1992 and 2019. Our specific objectives included (i) producing a forest cover map for 2019, (ii) analyzing the spatiotemporal patterns of forest cover changes from 1992 to 2019, and (iii) determining the main driving forces. Landsat 8 images were used to develop forest-cover maps for 2019, and the rest of the forest cover maps (1992, 1999, and 2010) were obtained from the Forest Department of Sri Lanka. In this study, we found that the dry zone had undergone rapid forest loss (246,958.4 ha) during the past 27 years, which accounts for 8.0% of the net forest cover changes. From 2010 to 2019, the rates of forest loss were high, and this can be associated with the rapid infrastructure development of the country. The findings of this study can be used as a proxy to reform current forest policies and enhance the forest sustainability of the study area.</jats:p