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Assessment of soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in tropical dry deciduous forests is imperative to know their contribution in regulating the regional and global carbon (C) cycles. In the present study, three forest types: dry deciduous teak (DDTF), dry deciduous mixed (DDMF) and Boswellia (BF) forests were selected to assess the variation in SOC and the factors influencing it. The SOC stocks (0-50 cm) varied significantly within and among the forest types and ranged from 48.7 (BF) to 89.1 (DDTF) Mg C/ha (mean: 64.6 +- 9.7 Mg C/ha). The differences observed could be due to variations in organic matter input, quality and quantity of litter produced, topography, vegetation composition, soil bulk density, soil moisture and soil depth. The total mean SOC stocks at 0-10, 10.1-30 and 30.1-50 cm depths were 19.2, 24.4 and 21.0 Mg C/ha, respectively. The SOC showed significant positive relationships with soil organic matter (r equals to 0.79, P less than 0.01), soil moisture (r equals to 0.41, P less than 0.01), aspect (r equals to 0.52, P less than 0.01) and dominance (r equals to 0.53, P less than 0.01), which accounted for 66.8, 15.7, 8.4 and 5.6% of variance. This study provided an understanding of the SOC stock variation among three tropical dry deciduous forest types in the Central Indian landscape and identified the roles of different drivers in SOC storage.
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