DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2013.v01i06.011

Pages: 290-296

Trees provide innumerable ecosystem services in human-dominated urban environment. Forest disturbances as well as biomass enrichments are tightly linked with atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. All trees ≥5 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) were inventoried from a one hectare area of the Cooum river bank (CRB), Chennai Metropolitan city (CMC), India. Both above and below ground biomass were estimated by widely accepted regression equations with DBH and wood density as inputs. A total of 710 trees belonged to 22 families, 41 genera and 47 species were recorded. Trees accumulated 86.02 Mg dry biomass and 43.01 Mg C in a hectare. Members of Mimosaceae dominated the CRB with 231 individuals. Tamarindus indica contributed more (11.744 Mg; 13.7%) to biomass. As to the families Ceasalpiniaceae, Mimosaceae and Papilionaceae altogether contributed 55.61 Mg (64.64%) to total biomass. Tree diameter class 31-45 cm contributed more (35.15 Mg; 40.86%) to total biomass. On average each tree achieved 0.47 ± 0.1 cm dbh growth yr-1. In a year one hectare urban forest sequestered 3999.91 kg biomass and 1999.95 kg C. The data obtained through this study can be useful to educate the importance of urban trees to higher secondary school students and local community people in Chennai city