Delhi's older urban forests store triple the carbon of new ones
Rani A, Rajlaxmi A, Singh P, Kumar M
Urban Ecology
The mature trees shading a decades-old city park are doing measurably more climate work than the young saplings in a recently restored green space nearby, which changes how cities should prioritize which patches of green to protect.
Scientists went into four forested patches around Delhi and measured every tree's height and trunk width to figure out how much carbon each forest was storing. The oldest, most established forest held over three times more carbon than the youngest restoration site, mostly because bigger, thicker trees hold way more carbon than skinny young ones. The takeaway is that protecting old urban forests matters just as much as planting new trees, since a mature tree is doing far more climate work than a sapling.
Key Findings
Sanjay Van had the highest biomass (108.71 Mg/ha) and carbon density (50.01 Mg/ha), while Aravali Biodiversity Park had the lowest (34.51 Mg/ha biomass, 15.87 Mg/ha carbon)
Tree basal area (trunk cross-sectional area) strongly predicted total biomass (r = 0.78, p < 0.001, n = 36)
Differences across the four sites were driven mainly by species composition, stand structure, and local environmental conditions rather than a single factor
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers measured how much carbon four urban forests in Delhi-NCR are storing and found huge differences between sites, with older, denser forests locking away more than three times as much carbon as newer restoration areas.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Urban forests as carbon reservoirs: comparative assessment across Delhi-NCR.
Rapid urbanization and population growth in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) have resulted in the loss of green cover, deterioration of air quality, and intensification of the urban heat isl...
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