Mitigating Biodiversity Concerns in  Eucalyptus Plantations Located in South China

Williams, Roger A.

doi:10.4236/jbm.2015.36001

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Regionally, a recent study highlights the importance of establishing mixed‐species plantations for diversity conservation and improvement of ecosystem functioning in subtropical China (Yang et al, ). However, several studies have reported decreasing biodiversity with increases in plantation area in tropical and subtropical China (Williams, ; Zhai et al, ). Thus, enhancing biodiversity in forest plantations should be of high priority in forest management, particularly in southeastern China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Ecosystem Service Benefits of Assisted Natural Regeneration

et al. 2018

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China manages the largest monoculture plantations in the world, with 24% being Chinese fir plantations. Maximizing the ecosystem services of Chinese fir plantations has important implications in global carbon cycle and biodiversity protection. Assisted natural regeneration (ANR) is a practice to convert degraded lands into more productive forests with great ecosystems services. However, the quantitative understanding of ANR ecosystem service benefits is very limited. We conducted a comprehensive field manipulation experiment to evaluate the ANR potentials. We quantified and compared key ecosystem services including surface runoff, sediment yield, dissolved organic carbon export, plant diversity, and aboveground carbon accumulation of ANR of secondary forests dominated by Castanopsis carlesii to that of Chinese fir and C. carlesii plantations. Our results showed that ANR of C. carlesii forest reduced surface runoff and sediment yield up to 50% compared with other young plantations in the first 3 years and substantially increased plant diversity. ANR also reduced the export of dissolved organic carbon by 60–90% in the first 2 years. Aboveground biomass of the young ANR forest was approximately 3–4 times of that of other young plantations, while aboveground biomass of mature ANR forests was approximately 1.4 times of that of mature Chinese fir plantations of the same age. If all Chinese fir plantations in China were replaced by ANR forests, potentially 0.7 Pg more carbon will be stored in aboveground in one rotation (25 years). The results indicate that ANR triggers positive feedbacks among soil and water conservation, biodiversity protection, and biomass accumulation and thereby enhances ecosystem services.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Ecosystem Service Benefits of Assisted Natural Regeneration

et al. 2018

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“…The HPNP is a protected area, however there are other plantations around this area. Therefore, it is important to encourage the surrounding plantations to improve resources by practicing environmental friendly performances, such as to develop mixed plantings of Eucalyptus with other native fast-growing species (Williams, 2015).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity and Distribution of Avifauna at the Tropical Montane Cloud Forests of Horton Plains National Park

Chandrasiri

Dharmarathne

Mahaulpatha

2018

JTFE

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Diversity and distribution of avifauna was studied at the tropical montane cloud forests of Horton Plains National Park, situated in the highland plateau of the Nuwara Eliya district from September 2015 to May 2016. Three main habitats were identified; cloud forest habitat, cloud forest die-back habitat and grassland habitat. Nine, 300 m line transects were marked in each of the habitats. Avifauna was recorded on three consecutive days of each month while travelling along these transects. Seventy eight species of birds were recorded during the study period. This included 66 resident species (with 13 endemic species) and 12 migratory species. The maximum value of the Shannon Wiener Index H' of 2.56 was recorded from the cloud forest habitat. In the cloud forest die-back habitat the H' was 2.49 and in the grassland habitat the H' was 2.31.The Jaccard similarity index, between cloud forest and cloud forest die-back was 0.58, and these two habitats had more common species. Cloud forest is the major habitat to be protected, with other habitats, in HPNP. Hence management of the HPNP should plan more actions to improve long term monitoring plans to warrant the protection of threatened species.

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“…This could be accomplished by interplanting with indigenous tree species such as Betula alnoides, Schima superba, Michelia macclurei, and Castanopsis fissa (Sun, Huang, Yang, Schaefer, & Chen, 2017;Williams, 2015). This could be accomplished by interplanting with indigenous tree species such as Betula alnoides, Schima superba, Michelia macclurei, and Castanopsis fissa (Sun, Huang, Yang, Schaefer, & Chen, 2017;Williams, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The majority of the Eucalyptus plantations are intensively managed in a successive short-rotation regime (SSR), with a typical rotation length of 5-7 years (Li et al, 2015). This regime involves intensive forest management activities, including clear-cutting, whole-tree harvesting, prescribed burning, mechanical site preparation, fertilization, and herbicide application (Booth, 2013;Wen, Ye, Chen, Liu, & Liang, 2010;Williams, 2015;Zhou et al, 2018). This intensive management leads to serious disturbances on understory vegetation and soil, and in turn, has resulted in sharp declines in wood productivity (Tiarks & Haywood, 1996) and serious ecological problems, such as considerable degradation of soil quality (Zhang et al, 2015), decreases of understory plant species diversity (Wen et al, 2010; and high risk of exotic plant invasion (Jin et al, 2015;Zhou et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intensive management and declines in soil nutrients lead to serious exotic plant invasion inEucalyptusplantations under successive short‐rotation regimes

et al. 2019

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The ongoing expansion of Eucalyptus plantations is changing the development of the world's forests. But, it also threatens ecological security regionally and worldwide. The expansion effect on biodiversity and soil nutrients is a universal problem, which has always been heatedly debated. In order to evaluate the long‐term influence of intensive management of Eucalyptus plantations under successive short‐rotation regime on understory plant diversity, soil nutrients and Eucalyptus tree growth, we chose a chronosequence representing the first to the sixth rotation of Eucalyptus plantations arrayed in the major Eucalyptus plantation areas in southern China and analyzed plant diversity indices, composition of plant functional groups (PFGs), soil nutrient concentrations and Eucalyptus tree growth at the stand level. Our results reveal that intensive management exerts a long‐lasting negative effect on understory plant species diversity, soil nutrients and Eucalyptus tree growth over successive rotations. Changes in soil nutrient content related with C and P cycling and declines in soil total nitrogen and available phosphorus were related with understory PFGs degradation. Furthermore, the combination of declines in understory woody plants, grasses and soil N and P cycling indices led to serious exotic plant invasion in the understory. Our study suggests that serious alien plant invasions could threaten the biosecurity, soil and timber security in Eucalyptus plantations. We suggest that reducing management intensity, converting mono‐cultured Eucalyptus plantations into mixed plantations with indigenous tree species, and changing from successive short‐rotation to short‐, medium‐ and long‐term cyclic rotations are required to sustainably manage these plantations through improving plant diversity, restoring degraded soils and resisting plant invasions.

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Mitigating Biodiversity Concerns in Eucalyptus Plantations Located in South China

Cited by 18 publications

References 31 publications

Large Ecosystem Service Benefits of Assisted Natural Regeneration

Large Ecosystem Service Benefits of Assisted Natural Regeneration

Diversity and Distribution of Avifauna at the Tropical Montane Cloud Forests of Horton Plains National Park

Intensive management and declines in soil nutrients lead to serious exotic plant invasion inEucalyptusplantations under successive short‐rotation regimes

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