A field-based estimation of moso bamboo forest biomass in China

Abstract

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) forests are widely distributed in southern China and have expanded rapidly in recent years. Although some studies have explored bamboo biomass, there are great uncertainties regarding regional- and national-scale estimations of the total biomass of bamboo forests due to a lack of systematic surveys and root biomass sampling. We investigated 322 bamboo stand plots at 48 sites across all distributed areas (15 provinces) in China in 2017–2019. We further measured the biomass of 147 individual shoots and 132 whole plants in Jiangxi Province, and determined the above- and belowground biomass in 11 sample plots using the complete harvesting method. At individual-level, the average biomass of whole-bamboo and shoot were estimated as 15.6 ± 8.3 and 12.8 ± 6.9 kg per individual, respectively. The stand mean aboveground and belowground biomass values were 60.3 ± 25.7 and 21.0 ± 5.6 Mg ha−1, with a total stand biomass of 81.4 ± 31.3 Mg ha−1 and an average root-to-shoot ratio of 0.37 ± 0.07. Using these data, combined with the 9th National Forest Inventory (NFI) dataset, we estimated that the total bamboo biomass of China was 283.0 ± 6.0 Teragrams (Tg) by using individual mean biomass and 349.5 ± 8.3 Tg by using stand mean biomass, which accounted for 1.7–2.1% of the national total forest biomass carbon pool (i.e., 8.5 Pg C). Our results provide an accurate estimation of bamboo forest biomass based on direct field measurements, and these estimates are essential to the parameterization of forest carbon models in China.