Abstract
Tropical forests play a disproportionately important role in the global carbon (C) cycle, but it remains unclear how local environments and functional diversity regulate tree aboveground C storage. We examined how three components (environments, functional dominance and diversity) affected C storage in Dinghushan 20-ha plot in China. There was large fine-scale variation in C storage. The three components significantly contributed to regulate C storage, but dominance and diversity of traits were associated with C storage in different directions. Structural equation models (SEMs) of dominance and diversity explained 34% and 32% of variation in C storage. Environments explained 26–44% of variation in dominance and diversity. Similar proportions of variation in C storage were explained by dominance and diversity in regression models, they were improved after adding environments. Diversity of maximum diameter was the best predictor of C storage. Complementarity and selection effects contributed to C storage simultaneously, and had similar importance. The SEMs disengaged the complex relationships among the three components and C storage, and established a framework to show the direct and indirect effects (via dominance and diversity) of local environments on C storage. We concluded that local environments are important for regulating functional diversity and C storage.
Highlights
Was significantly positively correlated with C storage in semi-arid forest ecosystems[4]
Fine-scale environmental factors, functional dominance and functional diversity were highly correlated with C storage (Table 1), and this was in line with the expectations of our second and third hypotheses
We found significant effects of local environments, functional dominance and functional diversity on fine-scale variation in C storage in a tropical forest, which helped to unravel the complex relationships among the three components and C storage, and provided new insights into the diversity - productivity relationships
Summary
Was significantly positively correlated with C storage in semi-arid forest ecosystems[4]. We addressed the following three hypotheses: (1) there is large fine-scale variation in aboveground C storage in the DHS tropical forest, as a result of largely heterogeneous habitats in this study site; (2) functional dominance and functional diversity have significant effects on C storage of quadrats, reflecting the relative importance of complementarity effects and selection effects under different local habitats; and (3) fine-scale environmental factors play key roles in determining aboveground C storage, functional dominance and functional diversity in this tropical forest, since heterogeneous environments can result in largely differential water and nutrient availability, even at small scales, and affects plant performance. As biotic factors, functional dominance and functional diversity may be more important in regulating aboveground C storage than fine-scale environmental factors, because plant performance could affect C storage directly in a tropical forest
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