Impact of fire frequencies on biomass and carbon storage in tropical moist deciduous forest community of Bandhavgarh tiger reserve, central India

Forest fire is one of the important factors affecting the land-based carbon sinks by eliminating the fire susceptible species. Assessing the impacts of current fire frequency will provide substantial insight into the extent of potential changes in carbon stock associated with the expected increase in fire frequency as projected for the near future. We mapped the frequency of forest fires using satellite-based observation and gathered data from field study for each fire frequency class to assess the impacts of frequent fires on vegetational biomass and carbon stock dynamics. Results showed an increasing trend for biomass and carbon stock from unburned to moderately burned fire frequency class for the adult layer and contrasting result for the juvenile layer. Further, we observed that frequently burned forests over a period of seventeen years have 38.5% less total woody carbon stock than unburned stands for juvenile layer individuals. Conversely, in the adult class, moderately burned forest stands stored 56.03% more carbon as compared to unburned forest stands. In moderate and high fire frequency classes, only one species contributed a proportionally similar percentage to total biomass as contributed by six species in unburned and low fire frequency classes indicating the community homogenization in terms of biomass and carbon stocking. These findings indicate that although the carbon stocking increases with the increase in fire frequencies, frequent burning may lead to a considerable reduction in the carbon sequestration potential of the forest by depleting the younger individuals indicating the requirement of cautious actions for sustainable forest management.