Abstract

Assessment of Diversity and CSR of a Model Urban Green Cover of Mangalore City

Author(s): Smitha Hegde*, Shaiesh Morajkar and Sangeeta S

The extant green cover in a 138 years old St Aloysius College campus in the city of Mangalore, Karnataka, India, was used as a model to study tree diversity and carbon sequestering rate, using a non-destructive biostatistics based method. The campus was found to constitute a highly diverse tree flora with a Shannon diversity index of 4.07. A total of 169 different tree species were found in the green cover of the campus, having an average population size of 9.98 per species and covering 4.67 ha of the total area of the campus with 361.03 trees/ha of the entire green cover. Five tree species, namely Polyanthia longifolia, Cocos nucifera, Tectona grandis, Terminalia catapa and Areca catechu dominated the area. Using allometric equations, the total green cover in the campus area was found to have total biomass of 4594.6 kg, which has sequestered 8431.1 kg of carbon at a Carbon Sequestration Rate (CSR) 84.31 kg of carbon per year. Olea europaea and Phoenix dactylifera, with the highest CSR of 0.09 and 0.08, respectively, were found to have the highest sequestered carbon with 12.54 kg and 11.19 kg of carbon.