TITLE:
Carbon Accumulation and Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics of Cannabis sativa in a Site-Specific Ecosystem, Abuja, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Enoh Ndifreke Esther, Shuaib Musa Hassan, Jibril Abdullahi Edicha, Muhammed Rabiu, Sani Yahaya
KEYWORDS:
Cannabis sativa, Carbon Accumulation, Soil Organic Carbon, Biomass Accumulation, Climate Change Mitigation
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.17 No.11,
November
10,
2026
ABSTRACT: The increasing need for nature-based climate mitigation strategies has renewed interest in plant species with high carbon sequestration potential. This study assessed the carbon accumulation of Cannabis sativa cultivated on a municipal dumpsite soil and an uncontaminated control soil under dry- and rainy-season conditions in Abuja, Nigeria. A controlled pot experiment was conducted using soils collected from a dumpsite (T1) and an adjacent uncontaminated site (T2). Soil physicochemical properties, growth performance, biomass production, soil organic carbon (SOC), and carbon content were evaluated using a two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s HSD test at p −1 in T1 during the rainy season, significantly exceeding the 55.0 ± 4.58 leaves plant−1 observed in T2. Total biomass ranged from 8.60 ± 0.41 g to 15.20 ± 0.58 g, with T1 producing the highest biomass yield. Soil organic carbon increased after cultivation, reaching 0.97% ± 0.055% in T1 during the dry season. Plant carbon content ranged from 1.40% ± 0.039% in roots to 1.62% ± 0.064% in leaves, while carbon deposition was greatest in stems (0.150 ± 0.018 g). Significant differences among treatments and seasons were observed for most growth and carbon-related variables (p