Relationships between measured and regression derived Carbon contents for different plant components based on tropical grassland species

Rising earth’s temperature due to increasing amount of atmospheric CO2 is a serious threat to earth’s biodiversity and challenging. The long-term storage and exact quantification of Carbon (C) in available C pools are urgently needed to cut the risk of biodiversity loss arising from the global environmental chage. Present study compared the measured C with regression derived estimated C for different plant components. For these 117 tropical grassland species just-before flowering were harvested from the campus of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Oven dried biomass (B) and C contents for each species were determined using standard methods. Linear regression equations between C and B for different plant components were developed. Statistically significant regression equation between C and B for each plant component was used to estimate the C content. Data was analysed using suitable statistical approach. Results showed strong positive and linear relationship between C and B for each plant component. Stems had approximately three-times greater C than the roots. Across the components, the slope of the fitted regression equations varied between 0.42 and 0.47. The paired ‘t-test’ showed insignificant differences between measured and estimated C for different plant components. Thus, the fitted regression equations could be useful for the quantification of missing C from tropical grassland which is a vital store house of biodiversity