Abstract
BackgroundThe Northern Hemisphere forest ecosystem is a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the subalpine zone stores large amounts of carbon; however, their magnitude and distribution of stored carbon are still unclear.ResultsTo clarify the carbon distribution and carbon budget in the subalpine zone at volcanic Jeju Island, Korea, we report the C stock and changes therein owing to vegetation form, litter production, forest floor, and soil, and soil respiration between 2014 and 2016, for three subalpine forest ecosystems, namely, Abies koreana forest, Taxus cuspidata forest, and Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii forest. Organic carbon distribution of vegetation and NPP were bigger in the A. koreana forest than in the other two forests. However, the amount of soil organic carbon distribution was the highest in the J. chinensis var. sargentii forest.Compared to the amount of organic carbon distribution (AOCD) of aboveground vegetation (57.15 t C ha−1) on the subalpine-alpine forest in India, AOCD of vegetation in the subalpine forest in Mt. Halla was below 50%, but AOCD of soil in Mt. Halla was higher. We also compared our results of organic carbon budget in subalpine forest at volcanic island with data synthesized from subalpine forests in various countries.ConclusionsThe subalpine forest is a carbon reservoir that stores a large amount of organic carbon in the forest soils and is expected to provide a high level of ecosystem services.
Highlights
The Northern Hemisphere forest ecosystem is a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the subalpine zone stores large amounts of carbon; their magnitude and distribution of stored carbon are still unclear
A growing literature is reporting on how the terrestrial carbon cycle is experiencing year-to-year variability because of climate anomalies and trends caused by global change (Baldocchi et al 2016)
This paper is to provide a synthesis of major C processes and C budgets for A. koreana forest, Taxus cuspidata forest, and Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii forest
Summary
The Northern Hemisphere forest ecosystem is a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the subalpine zone stores large amounts of carbon; their magnitude and distribution of stored carbon are still unclear. Forest ecosystems play a key role in global terrestrial carbon cycle owing to their huge C pool and high productivity (Schlesinger 1997). Forests account for about one third of the land area, and they store about 80% of C from the aboveground terrestrial ecosystem and about 40% of C from the belowground ecosystem in the form of aboveground or belowground biomass, dead tree, litter floor, and soil. Soils in forest ecosystems provide an environment for plants, the primary producers, to grow and store large amounts of carbon (Lee and Son 2006; Vitousek 1991). Soil plays an important role in the circulation of material in a forest ecosystem (Chung et al 1980). Changes to C stock in the soil, especially where large amounts of carbon are stored, will have a significant impact on the atmospheric carbon
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