Carbon storage in China's forest ecosystems: estimation bydifferent integrative methods.

Shunlei Peng,Guirui Yu,Qiufeng Wang,Nianpeng He,Anna Ma,Ding Wen

doi:10.1002/ece3.2114

Abstract

Carbon (C) storage for all the components, especially dead mass and soil organic carbon, was rarely reported and remained uncertainty in China's forest ecosystems. This study used field‐measured data published between 2004 and 2014 to estimate C storage by three forest type classifications and three spatial interpolations and assessed the uncertainty in C storage resulting from different integrative methods in China's forest ecosystems. The results showed that C storage in China's forest ecosystems ranged from 30.99 to 34.96 Pg C by the six integrative methods. We detected 5.0% variation (coefficient of variation, CV, %) among the six methods, which was influenced mainly by soil C estimates. Soil C density and storage in the 0–100 cm soil layer were estimated to be 136.11–153.16 Mg C·ha−1 and 20.63–23.21 Pg C, respectively. Dead mass C density and storage were estimated to be 3.66–5.41 Mg C·ha−1 and 0.68–0.82 Pg C, respectively. Mean C storage in China's forest ecosystems estimated by the six integrative methods was 8.557 Pg C (25.8%) for aboveground biomass, 1.950 Pg C (5.9%) for belowground biomass, 0.697 Pg C (2.1%) for dead mass, and 21.958 Pg C (66.2%) for soil organic C in the 0–100 cm soil layer. The R:S ratio was 0.23, and C storage in the soil was 2.1 times greater than in the vegetation. Carbon storage estimates with respect to forest type classification (38 forest subtypes) were closer to the average value than those calculated using the spatial interpolation methods. Variance among different methods and data sources may partially explain the high uncertainty of C storage detected by different studies. This study demonstrates the importance of using multimethodological approaches to estimate C storage accurately in the large‐scale forest ecosystems.

Highlights

Forest ecosystems contain over 45% of carbon in terrestrial biosphere and play a leading role in the globe carbon cycle (Beer et al 2010)
Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
The level of uncertainty differed among different forest C components, with the highest values being obtained for DMC and soil organic carbon (SOC)

Summary

Introduction

Forest ecosystems contain over 45% of carbon in terrestrial biosphere and play a leading role in the globe carbon cycle (Beer et al 2010). An accurate estimate of ecosystem C storages in forests is crucial for predicting the national carbon-climate feedback and guiding the implementation of mitigation policies (Beer et al 2010; McKinley et al 2011; Pan et al 2011; Yang et al 2014). The Chinese government has signed the “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” and the “Kyoto Protocol,” pledging to increase 40 million hectares of forest area by 2020 from the 2005, aiming to noticeably enhance C sequestration by China’s forests (Zeng 2014). Several studies have demonstrated that China’s forests act as carbon sink based on the National Forest inventory data (Fang et al 2001; Pan et al 2004; Piao et al 2005; Xu et al 2007; Zhao et al 2013).

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