Abstract
Tracking the response of forest ecosystems to climate change demands large (≥1 ha) monitoring plots that are repeatedly measured over long time frames and arranged across macro-ecological gradients. Continental scale networks of permanent forest plots have identified links between climate and carbon fluxes by monitoring trends in tree growth, mortality and recruitment. The relationship between tree growth and climate in Australia has been recently articulated through analysis of data from smaller forest plots, but conclusions were limited by (a) absence of data on recruitment and mortality, (b) exclusion of non-eucalypt species, and (c) lack of knowledge of stand age or disturbance histories. To remedy these gaps we established the Ausplots Forest Monitoring Network: a continental scale network of 48 1 ha permanent plots in highly productive tall eucalypt forests in the mature growth stage. These plots are distributed across cool temperate, Mediterranean, subtropical and tropical climates (mean annual precipitation 850 to 1900 mm per year; mean annual temperature 6 to 21°C). Aboveground carbon stocks (AGC) in these forests are dominated by eucalypts (90% of AGC) whilst non-eucalypts in the understorey dominated species diversity and tree abundance (84% of species; 60% of stems). Aboveground carbon stocks were negatively related to mean annual temperature, with forests at the warm end of the temperature range storing approximately half the amount of carbon as forests at the cool end of the temperature range. This may reflect thermal constraints on tree growth detected through other plot networks and physiological studies. Through common protocols and careful sampling design, the Ausplots Forest Monitoring Network will facilitate the integration of tall eucalypt forests into established global forest monitoring initiatives. In the context of projections of rapidly warming and drying climates in Australia, this plot network will enable detection of links between climate and growth, mortality and carbon dynamics of eucalypt forests.
Highlights
Forests play a central role in the global carbon cycle and understanding how carbon stored in forest ecosystems responds to changes in climate, land use and atmospheric composition is a key challenge confronting land managers, scientists and policy makers [1,2,3]
The Ausplots Forest Monitoring Network consists of 48 1 ha plots within seven regions distributed across Australia (Fig 1; Table 1; S2 Text and S1 File; S1 and S2 Tables)
We have established a network of 48 1 ha forest plots across a macro-climatic gradient in the tall eucalypt forests of Australia
Summary
Forests play a central role in the global carbon cycle and understanding how carbon stored in forest ecosystems responds to changes in climate, land use and atmospheric composition is a key challenge confronting land managers, scientists and policy makers [1,2,3]. Forests measured by large (1 ha) monitoring plots in African (AfriTRON; [6]) and Amazonian tropical forests (RAINFOR; [9]) exhibited an increase in biomass over recent decades, whereby biomass increment through tree growth and recruitment exceeded biomass losses through mortality. Forest monitoring plots have revealed links between increases in tree mortality rates and widespread drought or temperature stress in the Western United States [13,14] and Canada’s boreal forests [15] These widespread climate-triggered mortality events may alter the structure, function and composition of ecological communities in ways that are distinct from other natural forest disturbances [16], and have the potential to trigger transitions to non-forest ecosystems, especially when coupled with wildfire [17]
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