Variation in Organ Biomass with Changing Climate and Forest Characteristics across Chinese Forests

Yiran Fang,Zhiyang Lie,Li Xue,Xiaojun Zou

doi:10.3390/f9090521

Abstract

Forest biomass allocation patterns are important for understanding global carbon cycling and climate change, which might change with environmental conditions and forest characteristics. However, the effects of climate and forest characteristics on biomass allocation fractions (the fraction of total forest biomass distributed in organs) remains unknown. The authors use a large Chinese biomass dataset (1081 forests encompassing 10 forest types) to analyse the responses of biomass allocation fractions to biogeography, climate, and forest characteristics. The authors found that the stem mass fraction significantly increased with age and precipitation and significantly decreased with latitude and temperature. The branch mass fraction significantly decreased with age and density, but significantly increased with temperature and latitude. The leaf mass fraction significantly decreased with age and precipitation and significantly increased with temperature. The root mass fraction significantly increased with latitude and density, and significantly decreased with precipitation. The results suggest that latitude, temperature, precipitation, stand age and density are good predictors of biomass partitioning. These findings support the hypotheses that variation in resource availability constrains organ allocation and provides biogeographically explicit relationships between biomass allocation and both environmental and forest characteristics, which might be used for assessing the impact of changing environmental and forest characteristics on forest carbon dynamics and fixation.

Highlights

Forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle [1] because their biomass stores over 80%
The plant biomass allocation pattern is an important topic in ecology [3,4], due to its importance in global carbon cycling [2,5]
Forest biomass can be divided into stems, branches, leaves and roots

Summary

Introduction

Forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle [1] because their biomass stores over 80%of the global aboveground carbon [2]. Forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle [1] because their biomass stores over 80%. The plant biomass allocation pattern is an important topic in ecology [3,4], due to its importance in global carbon cycling [2,5]. The proportional growth of trees results in the proportional distribution of standing including the stem, branches, leaves and roots. Such distribution has important implications for the accuracy of global C cycle modeling and accounting [8]. Biomass allocation fractions (BAFs), defined as the ratio of plant biomass of organs (the stem, branches, leaves and roots) to total plant biomass, are well grounded in plant growth theory [9,10]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion