0269-B3

BIOMASS ACCUMULATION AND NUTRIENT DISTRIBUTION IN DENDROCALAMUS HAMILTONII

P. SHANMUGHAVEL and K. FRANCIS ¹

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the results from a trial plantation of Dendrocalamus hamiltonii grown in the waste lands under social forestry programme at Bharathiar University Campus, Coimbatore. The growth, biomass accumulation and nutrient distribution was studied. The number of culms produced per clump varied from 60 to 74. Their maximum height, diameter at breast height and basal area girth are 13m, 3 cm and 5.5 cm respectively. The number of nodes per clump ranged between 39 to 43. The grand total biomass ranges from 30.8 to 36.1 kg DM culm ^-1 . In the above ground biomass, the percent contribution of culms (67%), branches (26%) and leaves 3%. In below ground rhizome contribution was 5%. The percent distribution of nutrients in different biomass components varied: the ordering of major elemental concentrations was K > N > Mg > Ca > P in branch, culm and rhizome but was N > K > Mg > Ca > P in leaves. The maximum amount of all nutrients occurred in the culms, followed by branches, rhizomes and leaves. In conclusion, this species proved to be an ideal species for the development of wastelands.

INTRODUCTION

Bamboo is a fascinating arbores cent grass. For centuries, bamboos have played an important part in the daily life of the people in many tropical countries, particularly in Asia. India has the World's richest resources of bamboo, claiming about 130 species occurring over an area of 10.05 million ha, which is about 12.8% of the total forest area of the country(1). However, bamboo resource in the natural habitat is dwindling, due to over exploitation, gregarious flowering, shifting cultivation and extensive forest fires. A sustained availability can be ensured only by elaborate bamboo cultivation(2). More recently, curiosity about the peculiar plants with their widespread distribution, rapid rate of growth and multipurpose uses has grown. Studies on the effect of container size on seedling growth in a number of species point to the effect of container size on growth performance of Bambusa arundinaceae indicate that shoots and length of the plant were not influenced by container size(3). Performance of bamboo seedlings in nursery with varying spacing and fertility levels has been studied(4,5,6,7). Observations on growth and development of forest bamboos were reported (8,9). However reports on growth and nutrient dynamics of bamboos in a social forestry is limited (10,11,12). Therefore, an elaborate study was carried out on the performance of bamboo (Dendrocalamus hamiltonii) planted in the wastelands under social forestry programme at Bharathiar University campus, Coimbatore.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study Site:

The study site is located at Bharathiar University Campus, Coimbatore. It is at an altitude of 426.72 MSL, and on latitude 76.93 N. The climate of the area is monsoon. The area has red soils with pH between 7 to 7.8. The electrical conductivity is 0.2 mScm. The available soil (sub layer)nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was 9.8, 7.6 and 115 kg ha respectively at the time of planting. The maximum and minimum temperature and rainfall was 28 ⁰ C/31.5 ^o C and 105mm/117.5 mm, respectively.

Bamboo Plantation:

Nursery management Practices and Transplanting:
Since bamboo seeds possess a short period of viability (mostly a few days to 1 months)., seedlings from tissue culture were employed for raising bamboo plantation. A nursery area of 10 x 5 m was prepared in the field and filled with a mixture of soil and sand (3:1). Seedlings were pricked out from the polythene bags when about 7 cm in height. About 25-30 seedlings were planted in 1m ² of raised nursery bed. Watering was done 2-3 times a day, and care was taken to avoid over saturation. Nursery beds were provided with a thatch to protect the seedlings from direct sunlight.

The seedlings in the nurseries were uprooted carefully and transplanted to the field during August. The seedlings were planted at 6 x 6 m spacing with 250 seedlings /ha. The transplanted seedlings were watered every 2 hrs regularly in the morning and evening. Weeding was done as and as and when required. The plantation was adequately irrigated at 15-days intervals for one year. The plantation was protected against damage by rodents, grazing and browsing animals.

Growth study

From the study area, five clumps were randomly selected and identified with paint marking. The number of culms in these selected clumps were counted. All observation were made for the basal area girth, DBH, height and number of nodes in all culms.

Biomass estimation

In order to estimate the total biomass in relation to organic productivity, 3 clumps were randomly selected from each clump group to a total of 15. For reasons of economy, the rhizome was excavated only from three. After felling, subdivided into leaves, branches, culm and rhizome. Fresh weight of the components was estimated in the field and sub samples from each component were brought to the laboratory in plastic bags. The sub samples were then oven dried at 103 ^o C at constant weight. From the oven-dry weight of the samples, the total standing biomass of each clump group was calculated by multiplying the total number of the bamboos of each clump with the average dry weight of the sample (2)

Estimation of Nutrients

The nitrogen and phosphorus was estimated using a Technicon Autoanalyzer-II (13) and the nutrients K, Ca and Mg were analyzed using an Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer (14).

RESULTS

Growth study

The number of culms produced from 13 year old clump (marked A,B,C,D,E) was counted and are presented in Table 1. It was noticed that the number of culm and their nodes ranges from 60 to 74 and 39 to 43 respectively. The maximum height, diameter at breast height (DBH) and basal area girth one 13m , 3 cm and 5.5 cm respectively.

Biomass production in sample clump

It is seen in Table 2, that the leaf biomass ranges from 0.8 to 0.9 kg DM culm. The branch and culm biomass ranges from 7.9 to 9.3 kg DM culm and 20.9 to 24.1 kg DM culm. The rhizome and grand total biomass varied from 1.4 to 1.7 and 30.8 to 36.1 kg Dm culm respectively.

Percent contribution of biomass components

With regard to contribution of different plant components to total shoot weight (total above ground biomass) the culm contributes maximum in all the clumps. It varied from 66 to 67%. The contribution of leaf, branch and rhizome biomass was 3%, 26% and 5% respectively (Table 3).

Production of biomass on clump basis

The average biomass values of the sample bamboo were multiplied with the number of culms in each clump to calculate the biomass on clump basis (Table 4). It revealed that leaf biomass ranged from 49-6kg / clump, branch biomass from 498 to 629kg/clump, branch biomass from 15-54 kg/clump and rhizome biomass from 089 to 112 kg / clump.

Nutrient concentration:

In Table 5, the average nutrient concentration of the four components of bamboo are given. The highest concentration of different nutrients in the various biomass components was generally observed in leaf, branch, culm and rhizome. The proportions of nutrient elements were in the order to K > N > Mg > Ca > P except for leaf, which the nutrient elements were found in the order of N > K > Mg > Ca > P.

Nutrient Retention

The average annual nutrient retention was obtained by multiplying the productivity of biomass components with their respective nutrient concentration (Table 6). It was observed that on a unit area basis the maximum amount of all nutrients was found in the culm followed by branches, rhizome and leaves. Therefore the maximum drain of all nutrients occurred through culm harvest and among the nutrients the maximum drain occurred in potassium, followed by nitrogen, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus.

DISCUSSION

Growth study

The productivity of bamboo was assessed on the basis of the number of new culms produced annually. At a given site, the production of new culms depended mostly on the degree of congestion, the clump age and the rainfall of the previous year (12). It was noticed that the total number of culms in the selected clumps varied from 60 to 74 per clump. It was observed that the average height of the culm varied from 12 to 13 m. Corresponding basal area girth and dbh varied from 5 to 5.5 cm and 2.5 to 3 cm respectively. The number of nodes in each culm ranged from 39 to 43. Similar results were also observed (12,15,16).

The total standing biomass (kg DM clump) was calculated on the basis of the number of culms in each clump multiplied by the average total above ground biomass of sample culms. The grand total dry matter production 1954 to 2354 kg DM clump at the age of 13. Compared with other biomass measurements, the annual yield of air dry bamboo per hectare of 3-4 years plantation was found to be 6-7 t for Bambusa vulgaris (17), 1 t for Gigantochloa aspera (17), 297 t for Bambusa bambos (2). In Phyllostachys pubescens (18,19) the above ground biomass of Gigantochloa scortechnii from Malaysia was 71.9 t/ ha in natural stand and 36.67 t/ha in a 3 year old plantation (16). So in the present study the accumulation of biomass was found to be lower.

The nutrient elements in leaf were in the order of N > K > Mg > Ca > P, while in branch, culm and rhizome the order was K > N > Mg > Ca > p. The results are in general agreement with results for Dendrocalamus hamiltonii (23), Bambusa balcooa, Dendrocalamus strictus Thyrostachys olivery (24)) and Bambusa bambos (2). In Bambusa khasiana the order was K > N > Ca > Mg > P.

Of the cation concentrations that of potassium was the highest. Of the total accumulation, potassium alone contributed 43%. Thus in bamboo plantations, the element potassium is predominant over N, Ca, Mg and P, which is analogous to the effect of slash and burn agriculture on plant nutrients in Central Amazonia (25) in a Costa Rican wet forest site (26) in South America, and in Dendrocalamus strictus (23) in India. However, the total accumulation of potassium in 13 year old Dendrocalamus hamiltonii in the present study was 5% lesser than that reported by previous workers.

On unit area basis, the maximum amount of all nutrients was found in culm followed by branches, rhizomes and leaves. Therefore the drain of its highest K followed by N, Mg, Ca and P as in Dendrocalamus hamiltonii (23) and Bambusa bambos (2) whereas in Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, Bambusa tulda, Neohouzeua dulloa Bambusa chasiana the maximum retention was in the order of K > N > Ca > Mg > P(27). The demand for nutrients increases linearly during the period of rapid growth and diminishes at maturity(27).

This study shows that bamboos follow a strategy of faster uptake and storage of essential elements. Hence, necessary precautions need to be observed during exploitation of large scale plantations of Dendrocalamus hamiltonii to nutrient loss and maintain the soil fertility. Nevertheless, it can be recommended as a species for bamboo plantations in social forestry.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author (P.S.) is grateful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India for providing financial assistance.

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¹ Department of Botany,
Bharathiar University,
Coimbatore - 641 046,
India.