Design Development and Quantification of Ecosystem Services of Pulpwood Based Agroforestry

Abstract

A study was carried out to quantify the ecosystem services of pulpwood based agroforestry established at Forest College and Research Institute during 2021-2023. The hexagonal shaped pulpwood based agroforestry consisted of eight pulpwood tree species and four intercrops covering an area of 0.60 acre divided into 10 quadrats. The major objective of the study is to quantify the ecosystem services of pulpwood based agroforestry viz., provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. newlineProvisioning services were estimated in terms of yield (kg or tonnes) by market price method. In regulating services, a micro-climatic sensor kit and lux meter were used to monitor the microclimatic and climatic regulation through a non-destructive method of carbon sequestration. Cultural ecosystem services were estimated through the qualitative survey by a set of questionnaires and willingness to pay method. Under supporting services, litter bag method was used to study litter decomposition and the pollard walk method was used for butterfly biodiversity studies. The economic valuation of ecosystem services for present and future projections was also calculated. newlineThe results from the present study showed that the provisioning services contributed more with multifarious products (Pulpwood, Food, Fodder and Medicinal fruit), which generated higher economic returns at the end of the study period. In regulating services newlinemicroclimatic factors were influenced by the pulpwood based agroforestry viz., the air temperature was 1-2oC low under pulpwood trees, higher light intensity (982.73 lux) was recorded in the open area compared under different pulpwood tree species and higher soil moisture and lower soil temperature was observed under pulpwood based agroforestry compared to open area. A significantly higher biomass (37 kg tree-1) and carbon stock per tree (19.97 kg tree-1) was observed in Neolamarckia cadamba, while holistically Casuarina junghuhniana recorded higher biomass and carbon stock from 196 trees.