Forest Carbon Pools and Global Carbon Cycle

Forest ecosystems store carbon in vegetation and soil, hence are critical in maintaining global carbon cycle. This review highlights the global carbon cycle, forest carbon pools majorly the aboveground biomass carbon and soil carbon, and carbon stocks in Indian forests. Increase in atmospheric CO2 highlights the significance of terrestrial carbon sinks. Biotic and abiotic factors including climate, vegetation, disturbances, and land-use potentially alter the carbon stocks in forest. Approaches like destructive sampling, field inventories, remote sensing, LiDAR and machine learning methods can effectively quantify biomass and carbon. Assessment of carbon pools in forest ecosystems will be helpful in framing sustainable forest management policies and climate-change mitigation.