Growth and biomass production in chronosequence stands of MPTs in pure and mixed plantation on limestone overburden of Chhattisgarh.

Abstract

This investigation was carried out to examine growth and biomass production of Gmelina arborea, Eucalyptus tereticornis, Dalbergia sissoo and Leucaena leucocephala plantation in the Nandini mine, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India, during 2003-04. Morphological growth parameters of multipurpose trees (MTs) revealed that dbh and height significantly increased with the age of stands. The dbh increased from 1.15 to 15.98 cm and height from 1.53 to 13.95 m in 2 to 15 years of plantation age. The growth performance of E. tereticornis was observed to be superior among all the species studied. The biomass in different components (leaf, twig, branch, stem and root) of MPTs increased significantly with age, between pure and mixed stand. The proportion of biomass was observed for stem (0.042 to 84.83 mg/ha), branch (0.008 to 36.71 mg/ha), twigs (0.004 to 10.02 mg/ha), leaves (0.015 to 7.46 mg/ha) and roots (0.04 to 28.9 mg/ha) in 2 to 15 years of plantation age, respectively. The total biomass production in 2, 6, 10 and 15 years ranged from 0.11 to 4.13 mg/ha, 14.92 to 67.25 mg/ha, 31.5 to 92.326 mg/ha and 77.83 to 154.84 mg/ha, respectively. Maximum biomass was observed in E. tereticornis and minimum in G. arborea. The MPTs are recognized as one of the important tool to improve the wastelands.