Distribution of Carbon Stocks under Different Land Use Systems of Somawarpet Taluk, Kodagu District, India

A study was conducted in Somawarpet taluk of Kodagu district in Karnataka in the aim the soil carbon stocks under different land use systems namely natural forest land use, coffee based agroforestry and paddy systems. Soil samples were collected at different depths like 0-20, 20-40, 40-60 and 60-80 cm with five replications under each land use systems. Natural Forest showed the highest mean value of Potassium Dichromate Oxidizable Carbon content of 18.06g kg-1, followed by coffee system with o Potassium Dichromate Oxidizable Carbon content of 13.86 g kg-1 and the lowest mean value (8.23 g kg-1) was found in paddy land use system. The highest mean value of bulk density (BD) was found in paddy land use system (1.33 Mg m-3). In all the land use systems BD content increases with increasing soil depth. The highest soil carbon stock mean value of 4140.23 t ha-1 was noticed in natural forest, followed by coffee land use system (3267.38 t ha-1) and lowest value of 2171.45 t ha-1 of carbon stock content was observed under paddy land use system. In all the land use systems Potassium Dichromate Oxidizable Carbon content and carbon stock content was decreasing with increasing soil depth.