Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Carbon storage in urban vegetation plays a vital role in mitigating CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and may ensure long-term stability of stored carbon in fluctuating environments. This study was conducted to quantify the current above-ground carbon stock with tree diversity in various urban vegetation types of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Using allometric equations, we found site-specific total above-ground biomass to be 106.46, 90.94, 387.01 and 223.27 Mg ha-1, whereas carbon stocks were 53.23, 45.47, 193.50 and 109.53 Mg ha-1, in urban park, playground edge plantation, botanical garden and roadside vegetation, respectively. We found mean value of tree diversity was 1.80 which positively related with carbon stock. Basal area (22.18 m2 ha-1) and mean diameter at breast height (dbh) range was 0.47 to 47.49. Trees in the urban park had the highest mean dbh value (11.30 cm), while playground trees had the lowest (7.09 cm). Both basal area and mean dbh have significant positive relation with carbon stock (p <0.001 and p <0.01) across all sites except basal area for playground edge plantation sites (p=.08). We found that neither the carbon storage nor the tree diversity of Dhaka city is satisfactory, due to limited vegetation coverage. Increase tree diversification, suitable tree species composition model as well as proper conservation practices can change this scenario to help fight climate change.