The role of soil nutrient availability on the invasion establishment and carbon sequestration potential of an invasive shrub from Doon Valley, India

Research Article

The role of soil nutrient availability on the invasion establishment and carbon sequestration potential of an invasive shrub from Doon Valley, India

Gautam Mandal, S. P. Joshi

Corresponding Author : Gautam Mandal

Ecology Research Laboratory, Department of Botany, DAV (PG) College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.

Email ID : gautam231@gmail.com

Received : 2014-06-02 Accepted : 2014-07-07 Published : 2014-07-07

Abstract : Invasive plants are capable of modifying the soil properties to enable the further invasion of other plant species. In the present study we assessed the relation between soil properties and different growth patterns of Lantana (a noxious weedy shrub) and further its role in the atmospheric carbon sequestration process from Doon Valley, India. We found that in all the invaded sites the pH was increased but the increase in pH value did not show any positive relation with the measured and calculated attributes of Lantana like plant height, crown diameter, crown length, Phytovolume and biomass. However, this showed that less acidic conditions of soil is favouring the invasion of Lantana in all the land use systems. On the other side total Nitrogen (%) and Carbon (%) was greatly significant in deciding most of the measured and calculated attributes of Lantana. Nitrogen (%) was increased in all the invaded sites. The highest Nitrogen (%) content was recorded from Sahastradhara, which was from 0.14 (± .01) to 1.12 (±0.44) followed by Mothronwala swamp which was from 0.17 (± 0.01) to 0.1.06 (±0.41). Nitrogen % from all the sites showed a strong and significant correlation with other calculated attributes of Lantana. Nitrogen % with canopy coverage % (R2 = 0.82), Nitrogen % with average crown diameter (R2 = 0.98), Nitrogen % with shrub canopy area (R2 = 0.96), Nitrogen % with Phytovolume (R2 = 0.81) and Nitrogen % with biomass of Lantana/m2 (R2 = 0.92) but Nitrogen % with average height of shrub (R2 = 0.57) was not very significant. The SOC (Soil Organic Carbon) also showed a strong correlation in determining the different measured attributes of Lantana. Carbon % with canopy coverage % (R2 = 0.85), carbon % with average crown diameter (R2 = 0.94), carbon % with shrub canopy area (R2 = 0.93), carbon % with phytovolume (R2 = 0.75) and with biomass of Lantana/m2 (R2 = 0.91) but like nitrogen this time carbon also did not show a significant correlation with average shrub height (R2 = 0.47). The PCA shows that soil parameters like pH, available P and K, represent negative correlation with other soil parameters (r = - 0.042 with P, 0.109 with K – 0.009 with N and 0.0624 with C). Both available P and K along with the C:N ratio were showing negative correlation with other calculated attributes.

Keywords : invasive plants, soil properties, biomass of shrub, carbon sequestration, Principal Component Analysis

Citation : Gautam Mandal, et al (2014). The role of soil nutrient availability on the invasion establishment and carbon sequestration potential of an invasive shrub from Doon Valley, India. J. of Advanced Botany and Zoology, V1I409. DOI : 10.5281/zenodo.1000032

Copyright : © 2014 Gautam Mandal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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