Abstract
Moso bamboos (Phyllostachys edulis) are important forestry plants in southern China, with substantial roles to play in regional economic and ecological systems. Mixing broad-leaved forests and moso bamboos is a common management practice in China, and it is fundamental to elucidate the interactions between broad-leaved trees and moso bamboos for ensuring the sustainable provision of ecosystem services. We examine how the proportion of broad-leaved forest in a mixed managed zone, topology, and soil profile affects the effective productivity of moso bamboos (i.e., those with significant economic value), using linear regression and generalized additive models. Bamboo's diameter at breast height follows a Weibull distribution. The importance of these variables to bamboo productivity is, respectively, slope (25.9%), the proportion of broad-leaved forest (24.8%), elevation (23.3%), gravel content by volume (16.6%), slope location (8.3%), and soil layer thickness (1.2%). Highest productivity is found on the 25° slope, with a 600-m elevation, and 30% broad-leaved forest. As such, broad-leaved forest in the upper slope can have a strong influence on the effective productivity of moso bamboo, ranking only after slope and before elevation. These factors can be considered in future management practice.
Highlights
The widely distributed moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is economically important in southern China for its palatable shoots and versatile culms
We identify the dominant factors of each variable by calculating its contribution rate using the Akaike information criteria (AIC; Akaike 1974)
The multiple linear regression model (R2adj = 0.092, P < 0.01) for all nine variables performed much worse than the generalized additive model (GAM) (R2adj = 0.313)
Summary
The widely distributed moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is economically important in southern China for its palatable shoots and versatile culms. Mixing different plant species in managed habitats can increase the species diversity of other taxa, and can potentially enhance the stability and productivity of the entire ecosystem (Tilman et al 1996; Lehman and Tilman 2000; Shi et al 2014a). There are usually two patterns for a mixed forest: One is a discrete species mixture in a stand and another is a patchy mixture in a stand For the former pattern, one species is sparsely distributed in the forest of another (or multiple) species, whereas for the latter pattern, two (or multiple) species exhibit mosaic spatial distributions. These two patterns are generally helpful for improving the plant productivity. The latter is easier to be handled in forest management
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