Biogeographical patterns of forest biomass allocation vary by climate, soil and forest characteristics in China

Abstract

To explore whether the large-scale patterns of biomass allocation vary by climate, soil, and forest characteristics in terrestrial ecosystems, on the basis of the national forest inventory data (2004–2008) and our previous field measurements (2011–2012), we investigated the variation of four biomass allocation fractions (BAFs), and their relationship with environmental factors (e.g. climate and soil chemistry) and forest characteristics (e.g. stand age and stand density) across 11 of China’s forest types. Our results revealed that BAFs have significant latitudinal, longitudinal and altitudinal trends. Stepwise multiple regression models that involve the climate, soil and forest stand properties account for a part of the biogeographical variation in BAFs, and the stand age, stand density and mean growing season temperature mainly explain these variations. Reduced major axis regression models showed that BAFs differ in their sensitivity (slope of their response to environmental gradients) to climate, soil and forest characteristics among different forest types. The results of the current study do not support the isometric allocation hypothesis, which suggests that component biomass scales equivalently as total biomass across different plant species along environmental gradients.