Spatiotemporal Variation in Aboveground Biomass and Its Response to Climate Change in the Marsh of Sanjiang Plain

Abstract

The Sanjiang Plain has the greatest concentration of freshwater marshes in China. Marshes in this area play a key role in adjusting the regional carbon cycle. As an important quality parameter of marsh ecosystems, vegetation aboveground biomass (AGB) is an important index for evaluating carbon stocks and carbon sequestration function. Due to a lack of in situ and long-term AGB records, the temporal and spatial changes in AGB and their contributing factors in the marsh of Sanjiang Plain remain unclear. Based on the measured AGB, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and climate data, this study investigated the spatiotemporal changes in marsh AGB and the effects of climate variation on marsh AGB in the Sanjiang Plain from 2000 to 2020. Results showed that the marsh AGB density and annual maximum NDVI (NDVImax) had a strong correlation, and the AGB density could be accurately calculated from a power function equation between NDVImax and AGB density (AGB density = 643.57 × NDVI). According to the function equation, we found that the AGB density significantly increased at a rate of 2.47 g·C/m2/a during 2000–2020 in marshes of Sanjiang Plain, with the long-term average AGB density of about 282.05 g·C/m2. Spatially, the largest increasing trends of AGB were located in the north of the Sanjiang Plain, and decreasing trends were mainly found in the southeast of the study area. Regarding climate impacts, the increase in precipitation in winter could decrease the marsh AGB, and increased temperatures in July contributed to the increase in the marsh AGB in the Sanjiang Plain. This study demonstrated an effective approach for accurately estimating the marsh AGB in the Sanjiang Plain using ground-measured AGB and NDVI data. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of including monthly climate properties in modeling AGB in the marshes of the Sanjiang Plain.