Effects of vegetation restoration on ecosystem carbon storage and distribution pattern in semi-arid mining area

Abstract

In order to explore the effect of artificial planting to promote vegetation restoration on ecosystem carbon storage in coal mining subsidence area, the distribution pattern of ecosystem carbon storage in mining area during vegetation restoration was studied by space-time substitution method.The results showed that : (1) The biomass of vegetation layer increased gradually with vegetation restoration, and the biomass distribution ratio of each component was shrub layer (92.1%) > litter layer (5.5%) > herb layer (2.4%). The biomass of shrub and herb layer was mainly distributed in the aboveground part, the former accounted for 73.2 %, and the latter accounted for 83.4 %. (2) The carbon content of the vegetation layer was shrub (45.5%) > herb (43.6%) > litter (38.7%). The total carbon storage was in the early initial of vegetation restoration (1657.1 kg hm-2) < mid-term vegetation restoration (4830.6 kg hm-2) < mature stage of vegetation restoration (8446.4 kg hm-2), and shrub was still the main storage part of carbon storage in this layer. In summary, vegetation restoration can significantly increase the carbon storage of the ecosystem, the proportion of carbon storage in the vegetation layer gradually increases.