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Atmospheric CO2 concentration variability in response to contrasting vegetation ecosystems in Himalayan foothills

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Abstract

The study explores the usefulness of infra-red CO2 gas analyzer in capturing diurnal and seasonal variations in atmospheric CO2 over three ecosystems, viz., mixed forest plantation (HFS), deciduous Sal forest (BFS), and sugarcane–wheat cropland (SFS). Half-hourly datasets of CO2 and meteorological parameters collected in the respective study sites were analyzed to depict the diurnal, seasonal, and annual variation in atmospheric CO2. The influence of meteorological variables on atmospheric CO2 concentration was depicted through biplot technique based on principal component analysis. Minimum and maximum CO2 values observed in late-afternoon and pre-dawn period, respectively. Among all the sites under study, SFS exhibited the highest range [438.55 ppm (pre-dawn maximum) – 345.99 ppm (late-afternoon minimum)] of CO2 concentration. Minimum CO2 concentration was observed in monsoon and post-monsoon seasons for HFS/BFS and SFS, respectively. Also, maximum “morning down-drop” was observed in monsoon and post-monsoon season in HFS/BFS and SFS, respectively which can be ascribed to rapid consumption of CO2 concentration due to higher biomass. Highest CO2 concentration was observed in SFS owing to the more anthropogenic emission in terms of biomass burning data obtained through long-term Fire Energetics and Emission Research version 1.0. The peak in normalized difference vegetation Index derived from MODIS satellite across three sites coincides with months of the lowest atmospheric CO2 due to strong photosynthetic activity.

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Data can be made available partially with reasonable agreement and request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

Authors sincerely acknowledges IGBP-CAP Programme office at ISRO Headquarters for facilitating execution of project. The authors wish to acknowledge Divisional Forest Officer, Dehradun Forest Division and Divisional Forest Officer, Terai Central Forest Division, Government of Uttarakhand, India and field staff of Barkot and Haldwani Flux Research Sites for field support.

Funding

The present study was carried out as a part of soil–vegetation–atmosphere–flux (SVAF) of National Carbon Project (NCP) supported by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization)-Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Govt. of India, 4, Kalidas Road Dehradun, 248001, Uttarakhand, India

    Natvar Patel, Shweta Pokhariyal, Satya Prakash Singh Kushwaha & Prakash Chauhan

  2. Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum, 695547, India

    Vinay Kumar Dadhwal

Authors
  1. Natvar Patel
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  2. Shweta Pokhariyal
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  3. Satya Prakash Singh Kushwaha
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  4. Prakash Chauhan
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  5. Vinay Kumar Dadhwal
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Contributions

Dr. NR Patel and Dr. SPS Kushwaha: flux-tower setup and data collection. Dr. NR Patel and Shweta Pokhariyal: Data processing and manuscript writing. Dr. Prakash Chauhan and Dr. VK Dadhwal: concept of analysis, critical suggestions and reviewing of manuscript.

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Correspondence to Natvar Patel.

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Responsible Editor: Zhihua Zhang

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Patel, N., Pokhariyal, S., Kushwaha, S.P.S. et al. Atmospheric CO2 concentration variability in response to contrasting vegetation ecosystems in Himalayan foothills. Arab J Geosci 16, 184 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11266-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11266-8

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