Abstract
Studies of carbon storage using functional traits have shown that it is strongly affected by functional diversity. We explored the effects of functional diversity on carbon storage at the edge of a deciduous dipterocarp forest (DDF) ecosystem in Thailand. Aboveground biomass carbon (AGBC), soil organic carbon (SOC), and total ecosystem carbon (TEC) were used as indicators of carbon storage. Five functional traits were measured in 49 plant species to calculate the community-weighted mean (CWM) and Rao’s quadratic diversity (FQ). We assessed which functional diversity metrics best-explained carbon storage. The results indicated that AGBC had a significant, positive relationship with the FQ of wood density, and a negative relationship with the CWM of leaf thickness. SOC had a significant, negative association with the FQ of leaf thickness and a positive relationship with the CWM of specific leaf area (SLA). TEC was best predicted by increases in the FQ of wood density and the CWM of SLA. These findings indicate that CWM and FQ are important for understanding how plant traits influence carbon storage in DDF edge ecosystems and suggest that promoting a high diversity of species with dissimilar wood density and high SLA may increase carbon storage in chronically disturbed DDF ecosystems.
Highlights
Aboveground biomass carbon was highly variable among plots
We examined the relationship between functional diversity and carbon storage at the edge of a deciduous dipterocarp forest (DDF) in northern Thailand
Our results indicate that all carbon storage components were governed by the combined contribution of the community weighted mean (CWM) and FQ of plant functional traits, i.e., specific leaf area (SLA), leaf thickness (LT), and wood density (WD)
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The increasing atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is important to global climate change [1]. Forests are an excellent means of capturing atmospheric carbon via carbon sequestration [2]. Carbon storage in a forest at any given time reflects the net balance between carbon uptake, loss, and storage processes [3], and the ability of plants to capture carbon from the atmosphere was assessed by estimating carbon storage in forests [4]. The carbon storage capacity of forests was empirically estimated using trait-based approaches [5,6]. Functional diversity is significantly associated with ecosystem processes and can be used to estimate carbon storage in forest ecosystems [5]
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