Biodiversity in species,traits, and structure determines carbon stocks and uptake in tropical forests

Impacts of climate change require that society urgently develops ways to reduce amounts of carbon in the atmosphere. Tropical forests present an important opportunity, as they take up and store large amounts of carbon. It is often suggested that forests with high biodiversity have large stocks and high rates of carbon uptake. Evidence is, however, scattered across geographic areas and scales, and it remains unclear whether biodiversity is just a co‐benefit or also a requirement for the maintenance of carbon stocks and uptake. Here, we perform a quantitative review of empirical studies that analyzed the relationships between plant biodiversity attributes and carbon stocks and carbon uptake in tropical forests. Our results show that biodiversity attributes related to species, traits or structure significantly affect carbon stocks or uptake in 64% of the evaluated relationships. Average vegetation attributes (community‐mean traits and structural attributes) are more important for carbon stocks, whereas variability in vegetation attributes (i.e., taxonomic diversity) is important for both carbon stocks and uptake. Thus, different attributes of biodiversity have complementary effects on carbon stocks and uptake. These biodiversity effects tend to be more often significant in mature forests at broad spatial scales than in disturbed forests at local spatial scales. Biodiversity effects are also more often significant when confounding variables are not included in the analyses, highlighting the importance of performing a comprehensive analysis that adequately accounts for environmental drivers. In summary, biodiversity is not only a co‐benefit, but also a requirement for short‐ and long‐term maintenance of carbon stocks and enhancement of uptake. Climate change policies should therefore include the maintenance of multiple attributes of biodiversity as an essential requirement to achieve long‐term climate change mitigation goals.     

Impact of priming on global soil carbon stocks

Fresh carbon input (above and belowground) contributes to soil carbon sequestration, but also accelerates decomposition of soil organic matter through biological priming mechanisms. Currently, poor understanding precludes the incorporation of these priming mechanisms into the global carbon models used for future projections. Here, we show that priming can be incorporated based on a simple equation calibrated from incubation and verified against independent litter manipulation experiments in the global land surface model, ORCHIDEE. When incorporated into ORCHIDEE, priming improved the model's representation of global soil carbon stocks and decreased soil carbon sequestration by 51% (12 ± 3 Pg C) during the period 1901–2010. Future projections with the same model across the range of CO₂ and climate changes defined by the IPCC‐RCP scenarios reveal that priming buffers the projected changes in soil carbon stocks — both the increases due to enhanced productivity and new input to the soil, and the decreases due to warming‐induced accelerated decomposition. Including priming in Earth system models leads to different projections of soil carbon changes, which are challenging to verify at large spatial scales.     

土壤呼吸作用时空动态变化及其影响机制研究与展望

测定不同陆地生态系统土壤呼吸速率及其时空波动, 阐明其影响因子, 对于全球碳素平衡预算和全球变化潜在效应估计是最为基本的数据。然而, 有关土壤呼吸作用变异性及其影响因素的知识仍存在局限性, 一些关键的过程和机制还有待阐明。该文综述了近年来土壤呼吸作用时空动态规律、影响机制和模拟方面的研究进展, 指出环境因子和生物因子共同驱动着土壤呼吸作用的时间动态变化; 土壤呼吸作用在不同时间尺度上还具有明显的空间异质性, 这主要是植被覆盖、根系分布、主要的环境因素和土壤特性空间分布的异质性造成的。生物因子是影响土壤呼吸作用时空动态变化的主要因素之一。然而, 目前所使用的土壤呼吸作用经验模型通常利用土壤温度、土壤湿度或者两者的交互作用模拟土壤呼吸作用动态变化, 但没有考虑生物因子的影响, 这可能会导致明显的偏差和错误。因此, 为了精确估算土壤呼吸作用, 必须解决土壤呼吸作用小尺度上的空间变异性; 加强不同时间尺度上生物要素对土壤呼吸作用动态变化的影响研究; 除了气候因子外, 土壤呼吸作用经验模型应该纳入生物因子等其它影响因素作为变量, 用以提高模型模拟的正确性和准确性。     

A generalized,lumped-parameter model of photosynthesis,evapotranspiration and net primary production in temperate and boreal forest ecosystems

Summary PnET is a simple, lumped-parameter, monthlytime-step model of carbon and water balances of forests built on two principal relationships: 1) maximum photosynthetic rate is a function of foliar nitrogen concentration, and 2) stomatal conductance is a function of realized photosynthetic rate. Monthyly leaf area display and carbon and water balances are predicted by combining these with standard equations describing light attenuation in canopies and photosynthetic response to diminishing radiation intensity, along with effects of soil water stress and vapor pressure deficit (VPD). PnET has been validated against field data from 10 well-studied temperate and boreal forest ecosystems, supporting our central hypothesis that aggregation of climatic data to the monthly scale and biological data such as foliar characteristics to the ecosystem level does not cause a significant loss of information relative to long-term, mean ecosystem responses. Sensitivity analyses reveal a diversity of responses among systems to identical alterations in climatic drivers. This suggests that great care should be used in developing generalizations as to how forests will respond to a changing climate. Also critical is the degree to which the temperature responses of photosynthesis and respiration might acclimate to changes in mean temperatures at decadal time scales. An extreme climate change simulation (+3° C maximum temperature, –25% precipitation with no change in minimum temperature or radiation, direct effects of increased atmospheric CO₂ ignored) suggests that major increases in water stress, and reductions in biomass production (net carbon gain) and water yield would follow such a change.     

Are Swedish forest soils sinks or sources for CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>—model analyses based on forest inventory data

Forests soils should be neither sinks nor sources of carbon in a long-term perspective. From a Swedish perspective the time since the last glaciation has probably not been long enough to reach a steady state, although changes are currently very slow. In a shorter perspective, climatic and management changes over the past 100 years have probably created imbalances between litter input to soils and organic carbon mineralisation. Using extant data on forest inventories, we applied models to analyse possible changes in the carbon stocks of Swedish forest soils. The models use tree stocks to provide estimates of tree litter production, which are fed to models of litter decomposition and from which carbon stocks are calculated. National soil carbon stocks were estimated to have increased by 3 Tg yr⁻¹ or 12–13 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ in the period 1926–2000 and this increase will continue because soil stocks are far from equilibrium with current litter inputs. The figure obtained is likely to be an underestimation because wet sites store more carbon than predicted here and the inhibitory effect of nitrogen deposition on soil carbon mineralisation was neglected. Knowledge about site history prior to the calculation period determines the accuracy of current soil carbon stocks estimates, although changes can be more accurately estimated.     

Are Swedish forest soils sinks or sources for CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>—model analyses based on forest inventory data

Forests soils should be neither sinks nor sources of carbon in a long-term perspective. From a Swedish perspective the time since the last glaciation has probably not been long enough to reach a steady state, although changes are currently very slow. In a shorter perspective, climatic and management changes over the past 100 years have probably created imbalances between litter input to soils and organic carbon mineralisation. Using extant data on forest inventories, we applied models to analyse possible changes in the carbon stocks of Swedish forest soils. The models use tree stocks to provide estimates of tree litter production, which are fed to models of litter decomposition and from which carbon stocks are calculated. National soil carbon stocks were estimated to have increased by 3 Tg yr⁻¹ or 12–13 g m⁻² yr⁻¹ in the period 1926–2000 and this increase will continue because soil stocks are far from equilibrium with current litter inputs. The figure obtained is likely to be an underestimation because wet sites store more carbon than predicted here and the inhibitory effect of nitrogen deposition on soil carbon mineralisation was neglected. Knowledge about site history prior to the calculation period determines the accuracy of current soil carbon stocks estimates, although changes can be more accurately estimated. This article has previously been published in issue 82/3, under DOI .     

Evaluation of global warming impacts on the carbon budget of terrestrial ecosystems in monsoon Asia: a multi-model analysis

This study assesses the potential impacts of future global warming on the carbon budget of terrestrial ecosystems across monsoon Asia using the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP) dataset. We used simulation results of two emission pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5), climate projections of five climate models, and seven terrestrial biome models to analyze the changes in net primary production and carbon stocks in the South, Southeast, and East Asian subregions during the period 1981–2099. The simulations indicated that by the end of the 21st century, net primary production would increase by 9–45 % and ecosystem carbon storage would increase by 42–86 Pg C. The clearest climatic impacts were found when using the adaptation-oriented emission scenario (RCP8.5), which assumes a greater CO₂ increase and a larger change in climatic conditions. Substantial disparities in temporal trajectories and spatial patterns were found in the estimated changes, owing to the uncertainties in the emission scenarios, climate projections, and ecosystem models. We attempted to derive consistent patterns throughout the simulations to specify potential hotspots of climatic impacts (e.g., soil carbon change in the southern Tibetan Plateau). Finally, we discuss changes to the climatic characteristics in the study region (e.g., a change in the rainy season), the implications for ecosystem services, and the need for collaborative field monitoring studies.     

Estimating carbon carrying capacity in natural forest ecosystems across heterogeneous landscapes: addressing sources of error

Evaluating contributions of forest ecosystems to climate change mitigation requires well‐calibrated carbon cycle models with quantified baseline carbon stocks. An appropriate baseline for carbon accounting of natural forests at landscape scales is carbon carrying capacity (CCC); defined as the mass of carbon stored in an ecosystem under prevailing environmental conditions and natural disturbance regimes but excluding anthropogenic disturbance. Carbon models require empirical measurements for input and calibration, such as net primary production (NPP) and total ecosystem carbon stock (equivalent to CCC at equilibrium). We sought to improve model calibration by addressing three sources of errors that cause uncertainty in carbon accounting across heterogeneous landscapes: (1) data‐model representation, (2) data‐object representation, (3) up‐scaling. We derived spatially explicit empirical models based on environmental variables across landscape scales to estimate NPP (based on a synthesis of global site data of NPP and gross primary productivity, n=27), and CCC (based on site data of carbon stocks in natural eucalypt forests of southeast Australia, n=284). The models significantly improved predictions, each accounting for 51% of the variance. Our methods to reduce uncertainty in baseline carbon stocks, such as using appropriate calibration data from sites with minimal human disturbance, measurements of large trees and incorporating environmental variability across the landscape, have generic application to other regions and ecosystem types. These analyses resulted in forest CCC in southeast Australia (mean total biomass of 360 t C ha^?1, with cool moist temperate forests up to 1000 t C ha^?1) that are larger than estimates from other national and international (average biome 202 t C ha^?1) carbon accounting systems. Reducing uncertainty in estimates of carbon stocks in natural forests is important to allow accurate accounting for losses of carbon due to human activities and sequestration of carbon by forest growth.     

Increased topsoil carbon stock across China's forests

Biomass carbon accumulation in forest ecosystems is a widespread phenomenon at both regional and global scales. However, as coupled carbon–climate models predicted, a positive feedback could be triggered if accelerated soil carbon decomposition offsets enhanced vegetation growth under a warming climate. It is thus crucial to reveal whether and how soil carbon stock in forest ecosystems has changed over recent decades. However, large‐scale changes in soil carbon stock across forest ecosystems have not yet been carefully examined at both regional and global scales, which have been widely perceived as a big bottleneck in untangling carbon–climate feedback. Using newly developed database and sophisticated data mining approach, here we evaluated temporal changes in topsoil carbon stock across major forest ecosystem in China and analysed potential drivers in soil carbon dynamics over broad geographical scale. Our results indicated that topsoil carbon stock increased significantly within all of five major forest types during the period of 1980s–2000s, with an overall rate of 20.0 g C m^?2 yr^?1 (95% confidence interval, 14.1–25.5). The magnitude of soil carbon accumulation across coniferous forests and coniferous/broadleaved mixed forests exhibited meaningful increases with both mean annual temperature and precipitation. Moreover, soil carbon dynamics across these forest ecosystems were positively associated with clay content, with a larger amount of SOC accumulation occurring in fine‐textured soils. In contrast, changes in soil carbon stock across broadleaved forests were insensitive to either climatic or edaphic variables. Overall, these results suggest that soil carbon accumulation does not counteract vegetation carbon sequestration across China's forest ecosystems. The combination of soil carbon accumulation and vegetation carbon sequestration triggers a negative feedback to climate warming, rather than a positive feedback predicted by coupled carbon–climate models.     

Projected changes in mineral soil carbon of European croplands and grasslands, 1990–2080

We present the most comprehensive pan‐European assessment of future changes in cropland and grassland soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks to date, using a dedicated process‐based SOC model and state‐of‐the‐art databases of soil, climate change, land‐use change and technology change. Soil carbon change was calculated using the Rothamsted carbon model on a European 10 × 10′ grid using climate data from four global climate models implementing four Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emissions scenarios (SRES). Changes in net primary production (NPP) were calculated by the Lund–Potsdam–Jena model. Land‐use change scenarios, interpreted from the narratives of the IPCC SRES story lines, were used to project changes in cropland and grassland areas. Projections for 1990–2080 are presented for mineral soil only. Climate effects (soil temperature and moisture) will tend to speed decomposition and cause soil carbon stocks to decrease, whereas increases in carbon input because of increasing NPP will slow the loss. Technological improvement may further increase carbon inputs to the soil. Changes in cropland and grassland areas will further affect the total soil carbon stock of European croplands and grasslands. While climate change will be a key driver of change in soil carbon over the 21st Century, changes in technology and land‐use change are estimated to have very significant effects. When incorporating all factors, cropland and grassland soils show a small increase in soil carbon on a per area basis under future climate (1–7 t C ha^?1 for cropland and 3–6 t C ha^?1 for grassland), but when the greatly decreasing area of cropland and grassland are accounted for, total European cropland stocks decline in all scenarios, and grassland stocks decline in all but one scenario. Different trends are seen in different regions. For Europe (the EU25 plus Norway and Switzerland), the cropland SOC stock decreases from 11 Pg in 1990 by 4–6 Pg (39–54%) by 2080, and the grassland SOC stock increases from 6 Pg in 1990 to 1.5 Pg (25%) under the B1 scenario, but decreases to 1–3 Pg (20–44%) under the other scenarios. Uncertainty associated with the land‐use and technology scenarios remains unquantified, but worst‐case quantified uncertainties are 22.5% for croplands and 16% for grasslands, equivalent to potential errors of 2.5 and 1 Pg SOC, respectively. This is equivalent to 42–63% of the predicted SOC stock change for croplands and 33–100% of the predicted SOC stock change for grasslands. Implications for accounting for SOC changes under the Kyoto Protocol are discussed.     

20th Century Carbon Budget of Forest Soils in the Alps

Dendrochronological studies and forest inventory surveys have reported increased growth and biospheric carbon (C) sequestration for European forests in the recent past. The potential of concomitant changes in forest soil C stocks are not accounted for in the IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories. We developed a model-based approach to address this problem and assess the role of soils in forest C balance in the European Alps. The decomposition model FORCLIM-D was driven by long-term (that is, 1900–1985 AD) litter input scenarios constructed from forest inventory data, region-specific dendrochronological basal area indices, and time series of anthropogenic litter removal. The effect of spatial climate variability on organic matter decomposition across the case study region (Switzerland) was explicitly accounted for by constant long-term annual means of actual evapotranspiration and temperature. Uncertainties in forest development, litter removal, fine root litter input, and dynamics of forest soil C were studied by an explorative factorial sensitivity analysis. We found that forest soils contribute substantially to the biospheric C sequestration for Switzerland: Our “best estimate” yielded an increase of 0.35 Mt C/y or 0.33 t C/(ha y) in forest soils for 1985, that is, 27% of the C sequestered by forest trees (BUWAL 1994). Uncertainties regarding C accumulation in forest soils were substantial (0.11–0.58 Mt C/y) but could be reduced by estimating forest soil C stocks in the future. Whereas soils can be important for the C balance in naturally regrowing forests, their C sequestration is negligible (less than 5%) relative to anthropogenic CO₂ emissions in Western Europe at present. Received 25 August 1998; accepted 17 March 1999.     

Effect of land‐use and land‐cover change on mangrove blue carbon: A systematic review

Mangroves shift from carbon sinks to sources when affected by anthropogenic land‐use and land‐cover change (LULCC). Yet, the magnitude and temporal scale of these impacts are largely unknown. We undertook a systematic review to examine the influence of LULCC on mangrove carbon stocks and soil greenhouse gas (GHG) effluxes. A search of 478 data points from the peer‐reviewed literature revealed a substantial reduction of biomass (82% ± 35%) and soil (54% ± 13%) carbon stocks due to LULCC. The relative loss depended on LULCC type, time since LULCC and geographical and climatic conditions of sites. We also observed that the loss of soil carbon stocks was linked to the decreased soil carbon content and increased soil bulk density over the first 100 cm depth. We found no significant effect of LULCC on soil GHG effluxes. Regeneration efforts (i.e. restoration, rehabilitation and afforestation) led to biomass recovery after ~40 years. However, we found no clear patterns of mangrove soil carbon stock re‐establishment following biomass recovery. Our findings suggest that regeneration may help restore carbon stocks back to pre‐disturbed levels over decadal to century time scales only, with a faster rate for biomass recovery than for soil carbon stocks. Therefore, improved mangrove ecosystem management by preventing further LULCC and promoting rehabilitation is fundamental for effective climate change mitigation policy.     

Long‐term changes in forest carbon under temperature and nitrogen amendments in a temperate northern hardwood forest

Currently, forests in the northeastern United States are net sinks of atmospheric carbon. Under future climate change scenarios, the combined effects of climate change and nitrogen deposition on soil decomposition, aboveground processes, and the forest carbon balance remain unclear. We applied carbon stock, flux, and isotope data from field studies at the Harvard forest, Massachusetts, to the ForCent model, which integrates above‐ and belowground processes. The model was able to represent decadal‐scale measurements in soil C stocks, mean residence times, fluxes, and responses to a warming and N addition experiment. The calibrated model then simulated the longer term impacts of warming and N deposition on the distribution of forest carbon stocks. For simulation to 2030, soil warming resulted in a loss of soil organic matter (SOM), decreased allocation to belowground biomass, and gain of aboveground carbon, primarily in large wood, with an overall small gain in total system carbon. Simulated nitrogen addition resulted in a small increase in belowground carbon pools, but a large increase in aboveground large wood pools, resulting in a substantial increase in total system carbon. Combined warming and nitrogen addition simulations showed a net gain in total system carbon, predominately in the aboveground carbon pools, but offset somewhat by losses in SOM. Hence, the impact of continuation of anthropogenic N deposition on the hardwood forests of the northeastern United States may exceed the impact of warming in terms of total ecosystem carbon stocks. However, it should be cautioned that these simulations do not include some climate‐related processes, different responses from changing tree species composition. Despite uncertainties, this effort is among the first to use decadal‐scale observations of soil carbon dynamics and results of multifactor manipulations to calibrate a model that can project integrated aboveground and belowground responses to nitrogen and climate changes for subsequent decades.     

Rates of Litter Decomposition and Soil Respiration in Relation to Soil Temperature and Water in Different-Aged Pinus massoniana Forests in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area,China

To better understand the soil carbon dynamics and cycling in terrestrial ecosystems in response to environmental changes, we studied soil respiration, litter decomposition, and their relations to soil temperature and soil water content for 18-months (Aug. 2010–Jan. 2012) in three different-aged Pinus massoniana forests in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China. Across the experimental period, the mean total soil respiration and litter respiration were 1.94 and 0.81, 2.00 and 0.60, 2.19 and 0.71 µmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹, and the litter dry mass remaining was 57.6%, 56.2% and 61.3% in the 20-, 30-, and 46-year-old forests, respectively. We found that the temporal variations of soil respiration and litter decomposition rates can be well explained by soil temperature at 5 cm depth. Both the total soil respiration and litter respiration were significantly positively correlated with the litter decomposition rates. The mean contribution of the litter respiration to the total soil respiration was 31.0%–45.9% for the three different-aged forests. The present study found that the total soil respiration was not significantly affected by forest age when P. masonniana stands exceed a certain age (e.g. >20 years old), but it increased significantly with increased soil temperature. Hence, forest management strategies need to protect the understory vegetation to limit soil warming, in order to reduce the CO₂ emission under the currently rapid global warming. The contribution of litter decomposition to the total soil respiration varies across spatial and temporal scales. This indicates the need for separate consideration of soil and litter respiration when assessing the climate impacts on forest carbon cycling.     

Predicted Effects of Gypsy Moth Defoliation and Climate Change on Forest Carbon Dynamics in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

Disturbance regimes within temperate forests can significantly impact carbon cycling. Additionally, projected climate change in combination with multiple, interacting disturbance effects may disrupt the capacity of forests to act as carbon sinks at large spatial and temporal scales. We used a spatially explicit forest succession and disturbance model, LANDIS-II, to model the effects of climate change, gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) defoliation, and wildfire on the C dynamics of the forests of the New Jersey Pine Barrens over the next century. Climate scenarios were simulated using current climate conditions (baseline), as well as a high emissions scenario (HadCM3 A2 emissions scenario). Our results suggest that long-term changes in C cycling will be driven more by climate change than by fire or gypsy moths over the next century. We also found that simulated disturbances will affect species composition more than tree growth or C sequestration rates at the landscape level. Projected changes in tree species biomass indicate a potential increase in oaks with climate change and gypsy moth defoliation over the course of the 100-year simulation, exacerbating current successional trends towards increased oak abundance. Our research suggests that defoliation under climate change may play a critical role in increasing the variability of tree growth rates and in determining landscape species composition over the next 100 years.     

Stand Structure and Recent Climate Change Constrain Stand Basal Area Change in European Forests: A Comparison Across Boreal,Temperate, and Mediterranean Biomes

European forests have a prominent role in the global carbon cycle and an increase in carbon storage has been consistently reported during the twentieth century. Any further increase in forest carbon storage, however, could be hampered by increases in aridity and extreme climatic events. Here, we use forest inventory data to identify the relative importance of stand structure (stand basal area and mean d.b.h.), mean climate (water availability), and recent climate change (temperature and precipitation anomalies) on forest basal area change during the late twentieth century in three major European biomes. Using linear mixed-effects models we observed that stand structure, mean climate, and recent climatic change strongly interact to modulate basal area change. Although we observed a net increment in stand basal area during the late twentieth century, we found the highest basal area increments in forests with medium stand basal areas and small to medium-sized trees. Stand basal area increases correlated positively with water availability and were enhanced in warmer areas. Recent climatic warming caused an increase in stand basal area, but this increase was offset by water availability. Based on recent trends in basal area change, we conclude that the potential rate of aboveground carbon accumulation in European forests strongly depends on both stand structure and concomitant climate warming, adding weight to suggestions that European carbon stocks may saturate in the near future.     

中国森林和草地凋落物现存量的空间分布格局及其控制因素

凋落物是陆地生态系统的重要组成部分,它对生态系统的养分循环非常重要。凋落物现存量是凋落物输入量与分解量的净累积量,理论上影响凋落物输入过程和分解过程的因素都会对凋落物现存量产生重要影响。目前,我国科学家对部分区域典型陆地生态系统凋落物现存量及其影响因素进行了探讨,但迄今为止,全国尺度下的关于凋落物现存量评估的结果还未见报道。因此,如何准确地评估凋落物现存量对揭示生态系统应对全球变化具有重要意义。收集了2000—2014年公开发表文献中的森林和草地凋落物现存量数据(共1864个样点),并结合气候、土壤和地上生产力探讨了中国森林和草地凋落物现存量的空间格局及其主要控制因素,此外,还利用森林和草地凋落物的碳氮含量,结合凋落物现存量估算了不同区域和全国尺度的凋落物的碳氮贮量。分析结果表明:中国森林和草地的凋落物现存量存在较弱的经度和纬度格局,然而按照不同经度和纬度间隔整理数据后凋落物现存量表现出显著的空间分布格局。森林的凋落物现存量表现为随着经度和纬度的增加而逐渐增加,主要控制因素为温度。草地的凋落物现存量表现为随着经度的增加而逐渐升高,其主要影响因素为降水。森林和草地凋落物现存量在局部(或区域内)存在非常大的变异,这是造成其大尺度格局较弱的重要原因。结合1∶100万中国植被图的森林和草地面积数据,估算出中国森林的凋落物现存量约为1135.56 Tg,其碳氮贮量约为517.93 Tg C和15.33 Tg N;此外,中国草地的凋落物现存量约为119.63 Tg,其碳氮贮量分别为47.11 Tg C和1.59 Tg N。首次尝试对全国尺度森林和草地凋落物现存量及其碳氮贮量进行估算,其研究结论有助于揭示凋落物在碳氮循环中的重要作用,并可为准确评估中国陆地生态系统碳氮贮量提供重要参考。     

地上枯落物的累积、分解及其在陆地生态系统中的作用

了解陆地生态系统地上枯落物的累积和分解过程对认识它的生态作用、通过管理地上枯落物调控陆地生态系统功能和服务有重要意义。综述了陆地生态系统地上枯落物的积累和分解过程及其影响因素,然后概括了通过这些过程地上枯落物所发挥的生态作用,最后,在全球变化背景下,基于当前研究进展提出陆地生态系统地上枯落物研究的前景。地上枯落物累积在时间尺度上一般遵循植物的生命周期,同时也受环境因子的调控。大的空间尺度上,枯落物累积主要受水热因子控制,伴随植被类型的变化,表现随纬度升高而减少的趋势。然而,在局域尺度内,枯落物累积除受水、热因子限制,还被群落结构、土壤条件、植食动物等因素影响,表现较大变异性。当前,人类干扰作为一个不可忽视的因素,正在强烈甚至不可逆转的改变地表植被覆盖和枯落物累积。地上枯落物的分解过程包括淋溶、光降解、土壤动物和微生物分解,这些过程同时进行并相互影响。尽管目前还不清楚,但区分这些分解过程和分解产物的去向对了解陆地生态系统物质循环有重要意义。枯落物分解首先被自身类型、化学组成、物种多样性决定,同时也受分解者群体、非生物环境影响。其中,枯落物分解与其化学特性、物种多样性及土壤养分状况的关系是研究的热点,也是广泛争议的焦点。通过累积和分解,地上枯落物对陆地生态系统有物理、化学、生物作用。目前,枯落物的物理和化学作用研究较为透彻,而由于受枯落物数量、环境条件、响应植物特征或一些有待挖掘的未知因素的共同限制,地上枯落物的生物作用,尤其对植物的作用在不同研究中仍没有达成普遍的共识。全球变化可能影响地上枯落物累积、分解和生态作用。在全球变化的背景,研究地上枯落物产量和性状变化、阐明枯落物分解的分室模型、继续分析枯落物性状和分解关系、深入揭示枯落物的生态作用及其制约因素,理解和预测地上枯落物数量和质量变化对陆地生态系统功能和服务的影响是必要的。     

中国森林土壤碳储量与土壤碳过程研究进展

森林是陆地生态系统的主体,是陆地上最大的碳储库和碳吸收汇。国内外研究表明,土壤亚系统在调节森林生态系统碳循环和减缓全球气候变化中起着重要作用。但是,由于森林类型的多样性、结构的复杂性以及森林对干扰和变化环境响应的时空动态变化,至今对森林土壤碳储量和变率的科学估算,以及土壤关键碳过程及其稳定性维持机制的认识还十分有限。综述了近十几年来我国森林土壤碳储量和土壤碳过程的研究工作,主要包括不同森林类型土壤碳储量、土壤碳化学稳定性、土壤呼吸及其组分、土壤呼吸影响机制、气候变化与土地利用对土壤碳过程的影响等;评述了土壤碳过程相关科学问题的研究进展,讨论了尚未解决的主要问题,并分析了未来土壤碳研究的发展趋势,以期为促进我国森林土壤碳循环研究,科学评价森林土壤碳固持潜力及其稳定性维持机制和有效实施森林生态系统管理提供科学参考。     

Trade‐offs between carbon stocks and biodiversity in European temperate forests

Policies to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss often assume that protecting carbon‐rich forests provides co‐benefits in terms of biodiversity, due to the spatial congruence of carbon stocks and biodiversity at biogeographic scales. However, it remains unclear whether this holds at the scales relevant for management, and particularly large knowledge gaps exist for temperate forests and for taxa other than trees. We built a comprehensive dataset of Central European temperate forest structure and multi‐taxonomic diversity (beetles, birds, bryophytes, fungi, lichens, and plants) across 352 plots. We used Boosted Regression Trees (BRTs) to assess the relationship between above‐ground live carbon stocks and (a) taxon‐specific richness, (b) a unified multidiversity index. We used Threshold Indicator Taxa ANalysis to explore individual species’ responses to changing above‐ground carbon stocks and to detect change‐points in species composition along the carbon‐stock gradient. Our results reveal an overall weak and highly variable relationship between richness and carbon stock at the stand scale, both for individual taxonomic groups and for multidiversity. Similarly, the proportion of win‐win and trade‐off species (i.e., species favored or disadvantaged by increasing carbon stock, respectively) varied substantially across taxa. Win‐win species gradually replaced trade‐off species with increasing carbon, without clear thresholds along the above‐ground carbon gradient, suggesting that community‐level surrogates (e.g., richness) might fail to detect critical changes in biodiversity. Collectively, our analyses highlight that leveraging co‐benefits between carbon and biodiversity in temperate forest may require stand‐scale management that prioritizes either biodiversity or carbon in order to maximize co‐benefits at broader scales. Importantly, this contrasts with tropical forests, where climate and biodiversity objectives can be integrated at the stand scale, thus highlighting the need for context‐specificity when managing for multiple objectives. Accounting for critical change‐points of target taxa can help to deal with this specificity, by defining a safe operating space to manipulate carbon while avoiding biodiversity losses.