Open AccessArticle

Carbon Stock Mapping Utilizing Accumulated Volume of Sequestrated Carbon at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh

Murad Ahmed Farukh

^1,*

Kamona Rani

¹,

Sayed Mohammed Nashif

¹,

Rimi Khatun

¹,

Lotifa Tamanna Toma

¹,

Kimihiko Hyakumura

and

Kazi Kamrul Islam

^3,*

Department of Environmental Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh

Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

Department of Agroforestry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4300; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054300

Submission received: 30 December 2022 / Revised: 24 February 2023 / Accepted: 26 February 2023 / Published: 28 February 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Forest Management and Environmental Sustainability: Challenges and Management Implications)

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Abstract

The potential to sequester carbon by tree species in tropical regions such as Bangladesh is promising in regard to carbon sequestration (CS) potentiality and reducing CO₂ emissions. This study focuses on perennial tree species within 488 hectares of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) to assess the CS and to produce a C stock map for BAU. To compute the green and dry weight, weight of C and CO₂ sequestration in the tree, a simplified methodology from the National Computational Science Institute of the Shodor Education Foundation was applied. A total of 27,543 trees comprising 424 species were taken into consideration, dividing the whole study area into four segments. B. ceiba and L. acidissima received the maximum and minimum green, dry, and C weight values. The topmost five carbon stock accumulating trees are M. longifolium (264,768 kg yr⁻¹), S. mahagoni (257,290), A. lebbeck (118,310), M. indica (78,906), and T. grandis (51,744) whilst A. lebbeck is the major C stock accumulating tree within BAU. The top five CS potential are found for B. ceiba (181 kg), A. columnaris (139 kg), S. siamea (116 kg), F. elastica (113 kg), and F. religiosa (83 kg). To reveal the prospects of tree species in Bangladesh for emission reduction, the CS potential could be incorporated with the C trading scheme of the CDM (clean development mechanism) of the Kyoto Protocol.

Keywords:

tropical tree species; carbon stock; carbon sequestration potential; carbon trading; urban tree management

1. Introduction

Decreasing the number of tree species enhances the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), including CO₂. In addition, rapid urbanization is influencing the economic growth, human health, and vegetation with huge reduction of tree species [1]. From the land surface, most of the heat and radiation is trapped by increased CO₂ [2] and can affect human health if the concentration becomes higher [3]. Carbon sequestration (CS) is the entire volume of C that stocks in above and below the earth whilst the route depends on tree growth and mortality. CS is the process of increasing the volume of C by improving C sinks [4]. Urban trees and green spaces provides multiple communal, artistic, landscape, corporal, ecological, and commercial profits. Among these are dropping air pollution and refining air quality [5] by collecting road dusts, adjusting rainfall-generated overflow [6], regulating microclimates [7], decreasing noise pollution [8], providing wildlife habitat [8,9], qualifying the heat island effect, and reducing electricity consumption [10]. Trees also possess vital role in moderating atmospheric CO₂ by sequestering CO₂ inside trees and storing CO₂ in tissues [11]. Additionally, CO₂ can be consumed by microalgae or transformed to chemicals and energy [12]. Regarding utilization, CO₂ can be used as an important C source to produce valuable chemicals and fuels [13,14], and can be reused via photocatalytic reduction into hydrocarbons [15]. In nature, CO₂ can be deposited in sea rocks and trees whilst, deep saline aquifers have enormous C storing ability through salinization [16,17]. Vigorous captivation of CO₂ from the atmosphere over photosynthesis, and its subsequent loading in the growing trees or plants is the C storage [18,19]. More C accumulation in the air will reveal more impact to global warming and climate alteration. Though the serious concerns of climate change are swelling with a motivation for climate change action, no durable action measures have been seen to inhibit climate change consequences so far [20]. Additionally, overuse and mismanagement of natural resources results natural exhaustion, imbalanced natural ecosystems and biochemical cycles [21]. Therefore, to know the contribution of plant species in CS and accumulation is important to balance this situation. On the other hand, government and general people understand the necessity of conserving and to increase number of trees. Various research has been carried out concerning CS in temperate forests, agro-forestry, plantations, and reserve forests [22,23,24].

The climate of Bangladesh is tropical with a mild winter from December to February and a hot, humid summer with a warm and humid monsoon from June to September [25]. It is well known that most of the tropical trees sequester more C [26] and the tropical deciduous tree amplified level of photosynthesis in spring [27], whereas tropical trees increase photosynthesis rate in higher temperature. This situation needs to reveal the amount of C accumulation and sequestration by the tree species. Bangladesh’s CO₂ emissions in 2016 were estimated at 74 Mt, making it the 48th largest CO₂-emitting country in the world [28]. It has been estimated that 367 tons of C ha⁻¹ is deposited by the trees in the forest of Bangladesh [29] that covers about 17.4% of the country’s entire land area [30]. The trees of only Chittagong forest division of Bangladesh can seize 1.9 million tons of C yr⁻¹ [31]. Likewise, the total consumption by terrestrial ecosystems of 0.7 Gt C yr⁻¹ is minor compared to the fluctuation of about 60 Gt C yr⁻¹ consumed by plants, but a nearly the identical quantity is delivered by respiration and forest fires [30,32].

C pools in forest ecosystems include C deposited in the existing trees above and belowground, in standing dead trees, down wooded fragments and litter, in nontree underwood flora and in the soil organic matter [33]. Vital categories denote pools that could account for more than 25% of the overall releases causing from deforestation or degradation. It is worthy to include trees in all cases, as trees are relatively easy to measure and reflect a noteworthy fraction of the whole C stock. The dimensional analysis of these trees comprises computing the dimensions of leaves, stem diameter, tree height, and crown diameter [34]. Though field measurements are the utmost dependable process for providing correct data on biomass and C values, this technique needs the costs of huge effort and time [35]. For decades, this technology has been established and engaged to gather data associated to several types of biomass in different conditions [35,36,37]. Satellite data are effortlessly collected and used for assessing C stocks resulting from spatiotemporal geographical and universal extents [38,39,40].

The Kyoto Protocol [41] provides opportunity to developing nations in an atmospheric GHG reduction system under its clean development mechanism (CDM). Increasing carbon discharge is one of today’s key concerns, which was administered in Kyoto Protocol because of its major effect on global warming [42]. The proper management of trees as a sink of C can provide benefits in two ways; one, it will help to lessen the impact of climate change [43], and two, it will be a prospective cost-effective business of C trading through the CDM [44,45,46]. By applying this CDM of C trading, climate change can be mitigated whilst, the mitigation cost over forestry can be fairly modest in some tropical emerging nations [47].

Keeping all the above reviews in mind, this study concentrate on CS and C stock accumulation in various tree species within the renowned green campus of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). As a promising research spot, BAU has lack of study regarding C stock and CS. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the amount of CS, and finally to develop a C stock map at BAU. This will reveal the approximate amount of C accumulation with its proper place of existence within the 488 ha green areas of BAU with the prospects of C trading in Bangladesh, in regard to the CDM and from the perspective of global warming.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Area

BAU campus in Mymensingh district consisting of 488 ha area was selected for this study considering huge green spaces and huge tree diversity of more than 450 different plant species. Among them, 424 species were considered under this study based on their total count of equal to or more than 25 (area basis tree species count are shown in the Supplementary Materials). The BAU campus is located in scenic rural surroundings on the western bank of the old Brahmaputra River, 5 km south from Mymensingh railway station and 120 km north from Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The study area map has been shown in Figure 1.

2.2. Segmentation of the Study Area (BAU)

The whole 488 hectares of BAU area was divided into four major segments for easy counting and to take measurements of different perennial tree species. The segments were named as ‘Academic and Residential Area (AR_A): East and West (AR_AE and AR_AW)’ and ‘Farm Area (F_A): South and North (F_AS and F_AN)’, as seen in Figure 1. The AR_A mostly consists of administration buildings, faculties, residential halls, residential quarters for teachers and staff, high school and college, etc. The Botanical Garden (BAU-BG, https://bg.bau.edu.bd/, accessed on 15 February 2023) is another resource of BAU that has so far succeeded in collecting and conserving a total of 1496 plant species under 287 genera and 198 families. The Germ-Plasm Center (https://bau.edu.bd/pages/view_1/11035, accessed on 15 February 2023) of BAU (BAU-GPC) contains about 8,500,000 mother plants of 161 species collected from 47 countries.

2.3. Data Collection

To attain the objectives of this study, a field survey within BAU was carried out. Tree locations were mapped using global positioning system and picture for each plot (100 m × 100 m) was taken. All the perennial trees within 488 ha of BAU were counted manually from January 2020 to June 2022. Through this extensive labor oriented job, a zone wise tree database for BAU is made including name of tree species, their total count, per cent, height in m (by optical reading clinometer), diameter in cm (by measuring tape), and approximate age in year (by tree record and interview of caretaker/gardener). To concentrate on C stock and CS measurement, this study focuses on tree species having equal to or more than 25 in numbers and are termed as ‘major trees’. To calculate the diameter at breast height (DBH), 1.4 m up the trunk of the tree from the ground was measured using a measuring tape, and a string was straightly and tightly wrapped around the tree trunk at 1.4 m. To obtain the circumference of the tree, the length of the string was measured and finally, the circumference measurement was converted to diameter (in cm) by dividing the circumference by π (3.14).

To measure the tree height, an ‘optical reading clinometer’ was used on reasonably level ground. To view the tree-top comfortably through the crosshair of the clinometer, the measurer moved back far enough, and read the percent scale of clinometer. Using a measuring tape, the distance to the tree was measured from where the reading was taken. Finally, the tree height was calculated using the clinometer reading (in %) multiplied by the distance to the tree (in m). The eye’s height (in m) from the ground was added at last.

For multi-stemmed trees, the size is determined by measuring all the trunks, and then adding the total diameter of the largest trunk to one-half the diameter of each additional trunk. When the trunk branches or splits less than 1.4 m from the ground, the smallest circumference below the lowest branch was measured.

For CS measurement, basal area was calculated before obtaining total amount of CS using following equations [48].

Basal area (m²) = (DBH/2π)² × π, Standing woody biomass = −1.689 + 8.32 × Basal area, Carbon sequestration = 0.46 × Standing woody biomass.

2.4. Experimental Work

2.4.1. Calculation of the Amount of CO₂ Sequestered in a Tree yr⁻¹

Trees planted in tropical climates usually sequester atmospheric CO₂ at an average of 22.6 kg of CO₂ tree⁻¹ yr⁻¹ [49]. Nevertheless, estimation of the quantity of CO₂ sequestered in a given tree was carried out by dividing the tree’s age to get a yearly sequestration rate. The process was done following the procedures advised by The National Computational Science Institute of the Shodor Education Foundation [50,51]. The simplified process is provided below:

(a): Determination of the total (green) weight of the tree;
(b): Determination of the dry weight of the tree;
(c): Determination of the weight of C in the tree;
(d): Determination of the weight of CO₂ sequestered in the tree;
(e): Determination of the weight of CO₂ sequestered in the tree yr⁻¹.

2.4.2. Determine the Total (Green) Weight of the Tree

Based on tree species the algorithm [52] was used to compute the weight of a tree:

W = above-ground weight of the tree in ‘kg’; D = diameter of the trunk in ‘cm’;

H = height of the tree in ‘m’; for trees with D < 11: W = 0.25D²H;

For trees with D ≥ 11: W = 0.15D²H.

Depending on tree species, the coefficient (e.g., 0.25) was changed, and the variables D² and H were stretched to exponents above or below 1. Usually, root system weighs about 20% as much as the above-ground weight of the tree. Therefore, to determine the total green weight of the tree, multiplication of the above-ground weight of the tree by 120% was applied.

2.4.3. Determine the Dry Weight of the Tree

To determine the dry weight of the tree, a recommended table [53] was used. The table comprises average weight for one cord of wood for various tree species. Considering all tree species in the table into account, the average tree was supposed to contain 72.5% dry matter and 27.5% moisture. Thus, to determine the dry weight of the tree, multiplication of the weight of the tree by 72.5% was conducted.

2.4.4. Determine the Weight of C in the Tree

The average C content is generally 50% of the tree’s total volume [54]. Therefore, to determine the weight of C in the tree, multiplication of the dry weight of the tree by 50% was carried out. To show the interrelation between CS and C stock, a linear trend line (y = mx + c) was used to obtain the R² (the goodness of fit) value.

2.4.5. Determine the Weight of CO₂ Sequestered in the Tree

CO₂ is composed of one molecule of C and two molecules of oxygen.

The atomic weight of C is 12.001115 g mol⁻¹, the atomic weight of oxygen is 15.9994 g mol⁻¹.

The weight of CO₂ is C+2*O = 43.999915 g mol⁻¹.

The ratio of CO₂ to C is 43.999915/12.001115 = 3.6663.

Therefore, to determine the weight of CO₂ sequestered in the tree, multiplication of the weight of C in the tree by 3.6663 was performed.

2.4.6. Determine the Weight of CO₂ Sequestered in the Tree yr⁻¹

Finally, the weight of CO₂ sequestered in the tree was divided by the age of the tree to determine the weight of CO₂ sequestered yr⁻¹ tree⁻¹ [55]. The simple equation is:

Weight of CO₂ sequestered yr⁻¹ = weight of CO₂ sequestered tree⁻¹/tree age.

To derive the C stock map, inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation was carried out using ArcGIS version 10.4.1.

3. Results

3.1. Major Trees with Height, Age and Diameter

This study finds a total of 424 tree species with a total count of 28,435 trees in BAU. The segmented area comprises 226 species for AR_AE with the maximum 8750 number of trees, AR_AW possess 69 tree species with a count of 7069 trees, the area F_AS possess 72 tree species with 9845 trees and the area F_AN comprises 2771 trees of 57 species. The total count of the tree varies from 1 for many species to 6303 for Swietenia mahagoni. To achieve the objectives of this work, this study emphasized ‘major trees’ (≥25 in numbers), and thus, a total of 27,543 trees were taken into consideration. The minimum number 26 was found for Persea americana to the maximum for S. mahagoni. The average height of the tree varies from 2.7 m for Limonia acidissima to 20.6 m for Monoon longifolium, Casuarina equisetifolia, Khaya anthotheca, and Bombax ceiba. The average age of the tree varies from 6 years for L. acidissima to 40 years for Pinus sylvestris, B. ceiba, Ficus religiosa, Araucaria columnaris, S. mahagoni, Madhuca longifolia, and Hyophorbe lagenicaulis, whereas the average diameter of the tree varies from 10.5 cm for L. acidissima to 84.9 cm for Albizia lebbeck. Figure 2 shows the major tree species (≥25) with their (a) height, (b) diameter, and (c) age within BAU.

3.2. Major Trees with Green Weight, Dry Weight and C Weight/C Stock

The green weight, dry weight, and C weight, i.e., C stock has been measured for the major tree species and are shown in Figure 3a–c, respectively. The green weight of the trees varies from 21 kg for L. acidissima to 4624 kg for B. ceiba with an average of 828 kg. The dry weight of the trees varies from 15.2 kg for L. acidissima to 3352.4 for B. ceiba with an average of 600.4 kg. The C weight of the trees varies from 7.6 kg for L. acidissima to 1676.2 for B. ceiba with an average of 300.2 kg.

The amount of CS by the major trees is shown in Figure 4. The figure shows that B. ceiba, A. lebbeck, M. longifolium, Tectona grandis, A. columnaris, Ficus elastica, K. anthotheca, Senna Siamea, P. sylvestris, and F. religiosa are the maximum C sequestering trees. The minimum carbon sequestering trees are Annona reticulata, Stereospermum colais, Psidium guajava, Callistemon spp., Cassia fistula, Lagenaria siceraria, Calliandra inaequilatera, Baccaurea motleyana, Citrus reticulata, and L. acidissima.

3.3. CS and C Stock Accumulation

Figure 5 depicts the relation of CS and C stock accumulation by the major tree species of BAU. The figure clearly shows that, A. lebbeck is the major contributing tree in terms of C stock within BAU area. B. ceiba and F. elastica also contribute a lot though these two species is slightly far away from the normal trendline (R² = 0.87). The figure suggests that the higher amount of C sequestering trees mostly build a considerable amount of C stock inside their biomass. The C stock accumulation tree⁻¹ year⁻¹ including their total species count is shown in Figure 6.

3.4. C Stock Mapping at BAU

Figure 7 illustrates the C stock mapping at BAU where, the scale denotes the range (0 to 1800 kg tree⁻¹) of C stock. The academic and residential area (AR_AE and AR_AW) possess huge amount of land spaces with infrastructures, school, college, offices, and other institutions. The extreme north to northeast part of Figure 7 denotes the minimum area of C stock from 1–675 kg tree⁻¹, and it is due to the possession of university teacher’s and officer’s residential quarters, guest house, university club, etc. In AR_AW, the largest volume of C stock is found from Jobber moor to agro-forestry building connecting road, and within the agriculture faculty building premises with the stock from 1576–1800 kg tree⁻¹. The densest green color in AR_AW is situated along the roadside, is due to the presence of huge number of trees just alongside the Dhaka connecting railroads. The upper (mostly student’s halls) and lower part (mostly staff quarters) of AR_AW area indicates comparatively lower amount of carbon stock from 451–1350 kg tree⁻¹.

A C stock map for BAU-BG is shown in Figure 8 (left panel) due to its abundant role in C stock at BAU. In F_AS, the largest volume of C stock was found in the BAU-GPC with 1576–1800 kg tree⁻¹. Due to its enormous importance, it has been shown more comprehensively in Figure 8 (right panel). Though the BFRI area possess C stock less than GPC (1351–1575 kg tree⁻¹) but represents the 2nd important place in regard to C stock. A comparatively bigger area in the middle of F_AS contributes zero (0) C stock as these areas are solely experimental crop field and were out of this study.

4. Discussion

In terms of green weight, dry weight, and C weight, L. acidissima and B. ceiba received the minimum and maximum values (Figure 3a–c). This is mostly due to the age (Figure 2c) and height (Figure 2a) of L. acidissima (the youngest tree) and B. ceiba (the oldest tree), and is also responsible for the below ground biomass of these trees. Generally, tree with larger diameter sequester more C than lesser diameter. Moreover, special tree management practices also affect the rate of CS by urban trees [56]. Another research group [57] found a yearly volume growth ha⁻¹ and the C stored are 6 m³ yr⁻¹ and 2093 kg ha⁻¹, respectively. A study on the total estimated C stock in India’s forest varied from 3,325,000–3,161,000 kg from 2003 to 2007 [58].

In BAU, the top ten CS potential, i.e., C sequestering capability tree⁻¹ are found for B. ceiba (181 kg), A. columnaris (139 kg), S. Siamea (116 kg), F. elastica (113 kg), F. religiosa (83 kg), P. sylvestris (77 kg), Neolamarckia cadamba (50 kg), Dalbergia sissoo (31 kg), Albizia procera (25 kg), and Hopea odorata (24 kg). In Maharashtra State of India, Terminalia bellirica sequestrated 297,357 kg of C followed by Ficus amplissima of 200,488 kg [59]. An assessment [60] was carried out on aboveground CS potential of four plantation crops, namely Theobroma cacao, Elaeis guineensis, Hevea brasiliensis, and Citrus sinesis, grown in the tropics. The maximum potential was reported for H. brasiliensis (194,138 kg C ha⁻¹). T. cacao (58,967 kg C ha⁻¹) and C. sinesis (68,946 kg C ha⁻¹) had much lower C content, and E. guineensis (40,823 kg C ha⁻¹) had the minimum CS potential.

For BAU, the very minimum (<1) CS potential bearing trees are S. mahagoni (0.57), L. acidissima (0.55), Artocarpus heterophyllus (0.54), Mangifera indica (0.30), Dypsis lutescens (0.22), and P. guajava (0.19). Though S. mahagoni (total count 6303), M. indica (3820), D. lutescens (2570), P. guajava (1438), A. heterophyllus (1343), Cocos nucifera (1305), and M. longifolium (1782) are the major trees in terms of quantity, most of these trees possess a very little CS potential. Therefore, in regard to C trading through CDM, the trees having higher CS capability such as B. ceiba, A. lebbeck, M. longifolium, T. grandis, A. columnaris, F. elastica should be emphasized for planting, rearing, and conservation. IPCC, WMO, UNEP, and further the CDM in Kyoto Protocol offer C credit to the developed country [61] to follow achieving development for a low-carbon society [62].

M. longifolium, S. mahagoni, A. lebbeck, M. indica, T. grandis, C. nucifera, D. lutescens, T. arjuna, Khaya anthotheca, and A. heterophyllus are contributing most in terms of total C stock inside their biomass (Figure 6) in BAU. The calculated values are 264,768, 257,290, 118,310, 78,906, 51,744, 42,562, 38,096, 20,848, 20,571, and 19,496 kg year⁻¹, respectively. Though M. longifolium, S. mahagoni, C. nucifera, D. lutescens possess very minute CS potential but the huge number of these species as a whole, stocks the maximum C within BAU. The lowest C accumulating trees are Cycas circinalis, S. colais, P. Americana, C. fistula, H. lagenicaulis, B. motleyana, A. marmelos, C. inaequilatera, and C. reticulata with the values of less than 0.22 kg. A total tree C stock estimation [63] found that tree species namely T. grandis (20,775 kg ha⁻¹), S. firmum (8800 kg ha⁻¹), D. turbinatus (6350 kg ha⁻¹), M. champaca (6352 ha⁻¹), and C. tabularis (5625 kg ha⁻¹) added to the maximum C stock. Another study found that the total C stock ranged from 71,440–114,770 kg ha⁻¹ with an average C stock of 90,890 kg ha⁻¹ for A. auriculiformis, D. turbinatus, G. arborea, L. speciosa, S. macrophylla, P. serratum, T. arjuna, T. grandis, and X. xylocarpa [64].

In AR_AE of BAU, the largest volume of C stock was found in BAU-BG area with 1576–1800 kg tree⁻¹. Within AR_AE, the staff quarter for university employees and the Karim bhaban premises shows C stock from 1126–1575 kg tree⁻¹ and seems the 2nd vital place of C storage. The areas with a substantial number of trees within the fields in F_AS, are due to community agro-forestry farming practices and plantations along roadside. This premises also contains many buildings and recreational infrastructures that preserve C stock from 1–1350 kg tree⁻¹. F_AN consists of lower volume of C stock compared to the other areas where the largest volume was found at 226–1350 kg tree⁻¹. F_AN comprises several farm areas and, therefore, a huge area contributes zero (0) C stock due to agricultural or experimental crop fields. The areas with many infrastructures and offices show C stock from 901–1350 kg. The lowest volume of C stock (1–225 kg tree⁻¹) was found within BINA area, and BAU Engineering section. The mean tree C (kg tree⁻¹) in S. macrophylla drops at a rate of −1.58 with increasing stand density, and stand level C stocks drops at a rate of −0.58 with increasing stand density (tree ha⁻¹), and the biomass C stocks in S. macrophylla varied between 34,400 and 351,900 kg ha⁻¹ with an average of 120,200 kg ha⁻¹ [65]. The BAU-BG and the BAU-GPC denoted by a ‘yellow’ and a ‘white’ star, respectively, in Figure 7 are the two most significant areas within BAU in terms of CS and C storage due to having enormous number of trees. The BAU-BG and BAU-GPC comprises 493 and 141 species with the total count of 3946 and 3921 trees, respectively. Both the areas were mapped based on C stock range from 901–1800 kg tree⁻¹ (Figure 8). The southwestern parts of BAU-BG possess the maximum C stock ranging from 1576–1800 kg tree⁻¹ whilst for BAU-GPC, the maximum C accumulation was noticed in the extreme north to northeastern part. A study [66] reported an average C stock for the entire mangrove forest in post-monsoon and pre-monsoon and noted 43,900,000 and 44,200,000 kg of C, equivalent to 161,130,000 and 162,102,000 kg of CO₂, respectively. It was also found that a hectare of vigorously growing forest can seizes 1814–4536 kg of C year⁻¹ [67]. On the other hand, the mean C stock per unit area was higher in small home gardens (69,150 kg ha⁻¹) than compared to medium (47,960 kg ha⁻¹) and bigger (39,930 kg ha⁻¹) home gardens [68].

C trading is an opportunity for developing countries such as Bangladesh. The trees and forests of Bangladesh still absorb more C than the whole C produced in the country. As a cosigner of the Kyoto Protocol, Bangladesh can ask for compensation from developed nations for this additional carbon captured by country’s forest. Nevertheless, further research is needed to relate CS and C trading in this region to cope with the impact of future climate change in Bangladesh.

5. Conclusions

This study focused on perennial tree species on a vast area of 488 hectares of Bangladesh Agricultural University. This study found a total of 424 tree species with a total count of 28435 trees within the university area. The segmented area comprises 226 species for AR_AE with the maximum 8750 number of trees, AR_AW possess 69 species with 7069 trees, F_AS possess 72 species with 9845 trees, and F_AN comprises 2771 trees of 57 species. Considering carbon stock accumulation and carbon sequestration by trees, this study concentrated on tree species having equal or more than 25 in numbers. Thus, a total of 27543 trees were taken under study to achieve the objectives and, therefore, the minimum of number of trees was found for P. americana (26) to the maximum S. mahagoni (6303). L. acidissima and B. ceiba received the minimum and maximum green, dry, and carbon weight values, respectively. The amount of carbon sequestration for the major trees (≥25) show that B. ceiba, A. lebbeck, M. longifolium, T. grandis, A. columnaris, F. elastica, K. anthotheca, S. siamea, P. sylvestris, and F. religiosa are the maximum carbon sequestering trees. In regard to carbon trading using the clean development mechanism, the trees having higher carbon sequestration capability such as B. ceiba, A. lebbeck, M. longifolium, T. grandis, A. columnaris, F. elastica should be emphasized for planting, rearing, and conservation in Bangladesh. A. lebbeck is the major carbon stock accumulating tree within Bangladesh Agricultural University area whilst B. ceiba and F. elastica also contribute a lot. The carbon stock accumulation yr⁻¹ tree⁻¹ including their total species count reveals that M. longifolium, S. mahagoni, A. lebbeck, M. indica, T. grandis, C. nucifera, D. lutescens, T. arjuna, K. anthotheca, and A. heterophyllus possess the maximum amount of carbon stock inside their biomass. The urban tree management can contribute towards emission reductions and carbon sequestration, while carbon sequestration by urban trees could open an avenue for carbon trading for a developing country like Bangladesh.

Supplementary Materials

The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/su15054300/s1, Data supplemental to the main text are added in Supplementary Materials. All the information about the area basis tree species count are shown in the attached Supplementary Materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, M.A.F.; methodology, M.A.F.; software, M.A.F.; validation, K.R., S.M.N., R.K., L.T.T., K.H. and K.K.I.; formal analysis, M.A.F., K.H. and K.K.I.; investigation, resources, data curation, K.R., S.M.N., R.K. and L.T.T.; writing—M.A.F.; writing—review and editing, M.A.F., K.H. and K.K.I.; visualization, M.A.F.; supervision, M.A.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study did not require any ethical approval.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank to (i) BAU Botanical garden authority (https://bg.bau.edu.bd/, accessed on 24 November 2022); and (ii) BAU Germplasm center authority (https://bau.edu.bd/pages/view1/11035/, accessed on 24 November 2022) for their support to collect enormous data regarding the trees species inside their jurisdiction. The authors are also grateful for the administrative and technical support from all the academic and farm areas of BAU especially from the gardeners.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. Detailed map of Bangladesh Agricultural University.

Figure 2. The major tree species (green bars) with their (a) height (black dashed line, in m), (b) diameter (blue dashed line, in cm), and (c) age (brown dashed line, in yr) within Bangladesh Agricultural University. Here the ‘major’ refers to trees having at least 25 or more in numbers.

Figure 3. The major (≥25 in number) tree species with their (a) green weight (green line, in kg), (b) dry weight (blue line, in kg), and (c) C weight or C stock (black line, in kg) within Bangladesh Agricultural University.

Figure 4. The major tree species with the amount of sequestrated C tree⁻¹ within Bangladesh Agricultural University.

Figure 5. The interrelation between CS and C stock by the major trees at Bangladesh Agricultural University.

Figure 6. C stock accumulation by total tree species year⁻¹ at Bangladesh Agricultural University.

Figure 7. Inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation to show C stock at Bangladesh Agricultural University. A comparatively bigger area in the middle of F_AS contributes zero (0) C stock due to existence of experimental crop fields.

Figure 8. Inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation to show C stock at Botanical Garden (left panel) and Germ-Plasm Center (right panel) of Bangladesh Agricultural University.

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Farukh, M.A.; Rani, K.; Nashif, S.M.; Khatun, R.; Toma, L.T.; Hyakumura, K.; Islam, K.K. Carbon Stock Mapping Utilizing Accumulated Volume of Sequestrated Carbon at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh. Sustainability 2023, 15, 4300. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054300

AMA Style

Farukh MA, Rani K, Nashif SM, Khatun R, Toma LT, Hyakumura K, Islam KK. Carbon Stock Mapping Utilizing Accumulated Volume of Sequestrated Carbon at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh. Sustainability. 2023; 15(5):4300. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054300

Chicago/Turabian Style

Farukh, Murad Ahmed, Kamona Rani, Sayed Mohammed Nashif, Rimi Khatun, Lotifa Tamanna Toma, Kimihiko Hyakumura, and Kazi Kamrul Islam. 2023. "Carbon Stock Mapping Utilizing Accumulated Volume of Sequestrated Carbon at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh" Sustainability 15, no. 5: 4300. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054300

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Carbon Stock Mapping Utilizing Accumulated Volume of Sequestrated Carbon at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh

Abstract

1. Introduction