Carbon stock of trees along an elevational gradient in temperate forests of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary

The estimation of carbon density of high altitude forests was carried out at five different sites along an elevational gradient from 1550 m to 3550 m in a part of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary, which is one of the largest protected areas of the Garhwal Himalaya, India. Among the study sites the above ground biomass density (AGBD) ranged from 202.72 Mg·ha^-1 (Site 5) to 718.75 Mg·ha^-1 (Site 1) and below ground biomass density (BGBD) from 61.00 Mg·ha^-1 (Site 5) to 203.04 Mg·ha^-1 (Site 1). The total biomass density (TBD) also followed similar trend, where the lowest value (263.73 Mg·ha^-1) was observed at Site 5 and the highest (921.79 Mg·ha^-1) at Site 1. The total carbon density (TCD) ranged from 131.86 Mg·ha^-1 (Site 5) to 460.89 Mg·ha^-1 (Site 1), which indicates that the carbon density of forests reduces with increasing elevation.