Biomass and its allocation of Chinese forest ecosystems

Abstract

Abstract. Forest biomass and its allocation have long been considered important in forest ecosystem structure and function. However, discrete forest biomass data and its allocation to various forest components must be standardized to explore many ecological questions, e.g., plant allometric scaling laws, biomass allocation theory, and terrestrial carbon cycling. Currently, available data sets focus either on regions other than China, or studies in China are spatially and/or temporally limited, e.g., specific habitats and/or time periods. Therefore, the applicability of conclusions to world or China forests might be problematic. Consequently, in the present study, published studies (during the 1978-2008 period) on biomass and its allocations in China's forests (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) were collected and critically reviewed, and a comprehensive forest biomass data set of China was developed. The data set included the following biomass data: tree overstory components (stems, branches, leaves, and roots, among all other plant material), the understory vegetation (saplings, shrubs, herbs, and mosses), woody liana vegetation, and the necromass components of dead organic matter (litterfall, suspended branches, and dead trees). Moreover, associated information was also included, i.e., geographical location, climate, soil fertility, stand description, sampling regime (the dimension and sample size of plots), and biomass measurement methods. The data set included 1607 entries for 348 study sites, which exhibited a broad spatial distribution, and covered broad climatic gradients (À5.18C to 23.88C in mean annual temperature and 223-2515 mm in mean annual precipitation). Our data set can be used to verify the accuracy of models used to budget China's forest carbon dynamics, and also provides an opportunity to further elucidate and confirm general principles and patterns in ecology. Finally, the data set is freely available for noncommercial scientific applications.

Correcting the overestimate of forest biomass carbon on the national scale

“…The data base that we used was published by Luo et al . (). This has both systematized the measurements of China's forest biomass and brought them into the public for the first time.…”

“…The field data pairs were collected from the data base (Luo et al . ) of China's forest biomass (Appendix S1) for 621 species observed from 520 field studies (Fig. ) since 1978.…”

“…Geographical distribution of China's sample plots (803), at which both the forest biomass and volume were measured simultaneously in 520 field studies published during 1978–2008 (Luo et al . ; Appendix S1).…”

How does biomass distribution change with size and differ among species? An analysis for 1200 plant species from five continents

“…This is important as we used individual plant size as a relevant variable in the analysis. Data were included from large data compilations from the Western scientific literature (Cannell, ), the Eastern European literature (Usol'tsev, ) and Chinese papers and reports (Luo et al ., ). These literature compilations were supplemented with original data collected for a range of species from C‐accounting initiatives (Montero et al ., ; Kuyah et al ., ; A. M. Jagodzinski et al ., unpublished) and governmental reports, as well as primary literature on field‐grown plants (e.g.…”

Biomass Carbon Sequestration Potential by Riparian Forest in the Tarim River Watershed, Northwest China: Implication for the Mitigation of Climate Change Impact

“…There are many environmental factors influencing biomass production of riparian forest, such as climate, water availability, topographical conditions, and age structures of riparian vegetation [44][45][46]. As we pointed out above, nearly 30 years of river desiccation in the lower reaches of the Tarim River resulted in the decline of groundwater and massive destruction and degradation of natural vegetation along both sides of the river channel, which led to a lasting decrease in the carbon storage of riparian vegetation, with an increased accumulation of dead wood.…”