Decadal Variation of Soil Organic Carbon Stock in the Mangrove-Dominated Indian Sundarbans

Although soil functions and the carbon cycle depend heavily on soil organic carbon (SOC) and its overall stock, there is a shortage of quantitative data on these topics over a broad range of salinity gradients. The Indian Sundarbans’ mangrove-dominated ecosystem provides a special testing ground for assessing how the SOC stock changes over time and space. The present paper highlights the temporal fluctuation of the 24 stations’ SOC stock in December (postmonsoon season) during 2012 and 2022. The SOC stock increased from 12.63 to 26.75 t C ha–1, which is an increment of 111.8% after a decade. Significant variations within stations and years (p < 0.01) were revealed. Such a study has great implications in the domain of carbon storage as the data sets can provide valuable information on the potential of the Sundarban mangrove soil as a reservoir of carbon. The data sets can also act as a road map to develop a sound management action plan to increase soil carbon storage that can offset a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions.