Replication Data for: Rubber tree allometry, biomass partitioning and carbon stocks in mountainous landscapes of sub-tropical China

Abstract

Expansion of rubber plantations into sub-optimal environments has been a dominating land conversion in continental South-East Asia in the last decade. Regional evaluation of the carbon sequestration potential of rubber trees depends largely on the selection of suitable allometric equations and the biomass-to-carbon conversion factor. Most equations are age-, elevation-, or clone-specific, and their application therefore gives uncertain results at the landscape level with varying age groups, elevation ranges, and clone types. Currently, for rubber-based systems, none of the allometric equations takes environmental factors (e.g. climate, topographic condition, soil properties, and management scheme) into consideration to allow pan-tropical usage. Against this background, 30 rubber trees with a root profile of up to 2 m were destructively harvested and 882 rubber trees were measured non-destructively in 27 plots, covering rotation lengths of 4–35 years, elevation gradients of 621–1127 m, and locally used clone types (GT1, PRIM600, Yunyan77-4) in mountainous South Western China. Allometric equations for aboveground biomass (AGB) estimations considering diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height (H), and wood density were evaluated. We also tested goodness of fit for the recently proposed pan-tropical forest model, which includes a bioclimatic factor E, combining indices of temperature and precipitation variability and drought intensity.