Abstract
Surveying the quality and quantity of carbon stock in litter layer and woody debris of Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations is critical in understanding their carbon pools. Here, the focus of the present study was on a number of Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations of different stand aged in the Pearl River Delta region of southern China. The plantation type proved to be a crucial driver of the carbon concentration in litter layer and woody debris, with Acacia exhibiting a superior ability to Eucalyptus to accumulate carbon with stand age in both these materials. The relative contribution of the litter layer and woody debris to the carbon stock of the ecosystem was also significantly higher under mature Acacia (8% and 7%, respectively) than that under mature Eucalyptus (4% and 1%, respectively). Most of the carbon stock within the litter layer was present in the leaf debris. The carbon stock in woody debris was mainly contained in the components within the 10–20 cm diameter class during the primary decay stage, represented as snags in middle-aged and mature Acacia, and as logs for mature Eucalyptus, respectively. The results indicate that both plantation type and stand age influence the characteristics of carbon stored in litter layer and woody debris significantly.
Highlights
Surveying the quality and quantity of carbon stock in litter layer and woody debris of Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations is critical in understanding their carbon pools
The present study describes the characteristics of the C stock in the litter layer and woody debris of Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations of different ages
Acacia trees exhibited a better ability than Eucalyptus trees to store C in their litter layer and woody debris; this was especially the case for slags of diameter 10–20 cm in the primary decay stage, which arose from a combination of the natural mortality and natural disturbances such as strong wind
Summary
Surveying the quality and quantity of carbon stock in litter layer and woody debris of Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations is critical in understanding their carbon pools. The stock of carbon (C) stored in litter layer and woody debris, along with its contribution to the ecosystem, is assumed to depend largely on the tree type and age[7,8,9]. To the best of our knowledge, no extensive study has been performed to date on the long-term dynamic characteristics of the C stock in the litter layer and woody debris and the association with tissue type and stand ages for Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations in subtropical zone. Certain studies have reported that the C concentration of litter and woody debris varies significantly by forests types[20,23], and that it is age-dependent in natural forests as well as plantations[2,6]. Our specific objectives were to test the three hypotheses: firstly, that the C concentration of the litter layer and woody debris is dependent on either the species of tree being grown and/or the stand age; secondly, that forest type and stand age affect the C stock held in the woody debris of a specific diameter class and/or state of decay; and that both forest type and stand age contribute to the capacity of a plantation to store C in the litter layer and/or the woody debris
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