Int. J. Adv. Res. Biol. Sci. (2016). 3(11): 160-164 160 International Journal of Advanced Research in Biological Sciences ISSN: 2348-8069 www.ijarbs.com DOI: 10.22192/ijarbs Coden: IJARQG(USA) Volume 3, Issue 11 - 2016 Research Article Green patches as carbon reservoir: A case study from Dhruba Chand Halder College, West Bengal Subhasree Thakur 1 , Suresh Kumar Agarwal 2 , Prosenjit Pramanick 3 *, Shampa Mitra 4 , Pavel Biswas 3 and Abhijit Mitra 5 1 Department of Zoology, Dhruba Chand Halder College, Dakshin Barasat, South 24 Parganas, 743372, West Bengal 2 Pragyan International University, Ranchi 834001 3 Department of Oceanography, Techno India University, West Bengal, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700091 4 Clean Blue Planet Consultancy Services, 56B Belgachia Road, Kolkata 700037 5 Department of Marine Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700019 *Corresponding Author: Prosenjit Pramanick E-mail: ppramanick660@gmail.com Abstract In the context of Climate change, greenhouse gas mitigation is one of the major concerns of the present era. Carbon sequestration by green plants is one of the most important processes for the reduction of carbon dioxide emission. Trees are the major sinks for atmospheric carbon. In the present study we evaluated the stored carbon in the dominant trees of Dhruba Chand Halder College (formerly Dakshin Barasat College) campus through the assessment of Above Ground Stem Biomass (AGSB) and Above Ground Stem Carbon (AGSC) of each species. AGSB ranged from 0.631 tonnes (Delonix regia) to 21.343 tonnes (Swietenia macrophylla) and AGSC ranged from 0.291 tonnes (Delonix regia) to 10.437 tonnes (Swietenia macrophylla) during study period. The assessment of the carbon dioxide equivalent for the species reveals considerable potential of the trees in off-setting atmospheric carbon dioxide. Keywords: Climate change, Carbon sequestration, Above Ground Stem Biomass, Above Ground Stem Carbon, CO 2 -equivalent. Introduction Global warming is the most dreaded problem of this millennium which just represents one aspect of climate change. It is caused mostly by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and others) in the atmosphere resulting to changes in climate pattern such as rising of temperature, sea level etc. Over the last century, global temperatures have risen by 0.7°C (Eliasch, 2008). The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased from 278 ppm in the pre-industrial era (1970) to 379 ppm in 2005 with an average increase of 1.9 ppm per year (IPCC, 2007). Thus it is necessary to control their rise of carbon dioxide at least at local scale to retard the adverse impact of climate change by limiting anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. The trees act as a major sink of carbon dioxide. The green trees have high potential of trapping atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22192/ijarbs.2016.03.11.019