Understanding carbon sequestration trends using model and satellite data under different ecosystems in India

Smrati Gupta; Pramit Kumar Deb Burman; Yogesh K Tiwari; Umesh Chandra Dumka; Nikul Kumari; Ankur Srivastava; Akhilesh S Raghubanshi

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166381

Understanding carbon sequestration trends using model and satellite data under different ecosystems in India

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Nov 1:897:166381. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166381. Epub 2023 Aug 17.

Authors

Smrati Gupta¹, Pramit Kumar Deb Burman², Yogesh K Tiwari³, Umesh Chandra Dumka⁴, Nikul Kumari⁵, Ankur Srivastava⁵, Akhilesh S Raghubanshi⁶

Affiliations

¹ Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India; Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
² Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India; Department of Atmospheric and Space Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India.
³ Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India; Department of Atmospheric and Space Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India. Electronic address: yktiwari@tropmet.res.in.
⁴ Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital, India.
⁵ Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
⁶ Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.

PMID: 37595902
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166381

Abstract

This study discusses carbon sequestration variability in different ecosystems of India. Four different biosphere regions, each over 0.5° × 0.5° area, have been selected considering the geospatial and climatic variability of these regions expanding from Central India (CI), the Northeast region (NER), the Western Ghats (WG), and the Western Himalayan region (WHNI). The climatic conditions of these four regions are different so are the biosphere constituents of these regions. We expect the Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) to enhance during the all India summer monsoon rainfall season but in varied magnitudes suggesting a role of climatic parameters and flora in these regions. The GPP from FLUXCOM for the duration of 2001 to 2019 (19 years) and satellite-derived vegetation indices like the Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and Leaf Area Index (LAI) are used in this study to understand the response of regional vegetation to this variability. EVI seems to be better related to GPP in comparison to NDVI in the preliminary analysis. Further analysis suggests LAI correlates better to GPP than EVI and NDVI in different seasons in these four regions. Also, meteorological parameters like surface temperature, rainfall, soil water, and other derived parameters like Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) are studied. It is also observed that the year-to-year variability in the climatic conditions could also have a role to play in the observed features. It is proven that the climate around the world is experiencing changes. Vegetation is one of the potent markers to monitor the impact of climate change. These long-term data and trends were studied to understand if there is any significant impact of the changing climatic conditions on the vegetation in these regions. Our study shows that there is an increasing (positive) trend in GPP at these locations though at different rates. WG and WHNI have shown a significant high rate of increase (6.44 and 5.36 gCm^-2 y^-1, respectively) in GPP over the last two decades.

Keywords: Carbon cycle; Gross primary productivity; Terrestrial biosphere; Vegetation indices.