The relationships among structure variables of larch forests in China

Background:Larch(Larix Mill.)forests are widely distributed in the upper parts of mountainous areas in China,playing vital roles in constructing mountain landscapes and maintaining mountain environments.Despite their importance,our knowledges on the large-scale patterns of structure characteristics and the relationships between different structure variables are unclear.In this paper,we investigated 155 plots from 11 natural larch forest types across the country to explore the biogeographic patterns of the structure characteristics and the allometric relationships between different structure variables for Chinese larch forests.Results:The structure characteristics were significantly different among larch forest types.For different larch forest types,the power function fits the relationships between tree height and diameter at breast height(DBH),average DBH and stem density,and taper and stem density well,but with different exponents among larch forest types.The power exponents of the allometric relationships between tree height and DBH for different larch forest types varied from 0.61 to 0.93(mean=0.86)by standard major axis regression(SMA),and from 0.51 to 0.78(mean=0.56)by ordinary least square regression(OLS).The 50%,75%and 95%quantile regression(QR)and OLS indicated that the average DBH and taper of the L.gmelinii forests,L.gmelinii var.principis-rupprechtii forests,and L.sibirica forests were significantly correlated with stem density.Conclusions:The relationship between tree height and DBH showed a power function relationship for all larch forest types in China,but with different exponents.Overall,stem density was negatively correlated with average DBH and taper.The Sect.Larix forests exhibited stand density effect.Our findings provide an important basis for recognizing the biogeographic patterns of structure factors and for the management of larch forests in China.

塔里木河和车尔臣河对台特玛—康拉克湖水域面积变化影响分析

塔里木河和车尔臣河是台特玛-康拉克湖泊群的主要水源,因入湖水量的实测数据缺乏,至今它们对湖泊群水域面积、储水量和空间格局的贡献度尚不清楚。因此,文中在多时相遥感数据和径流量数据的基础上,用Kendall秩相关分析法,剖析了台特玛-康拉克湖水域面积在1972~2021年的时空变化及其与车尔臣河出山口实测径流量和塔里木河下游生态输水量的关系,试图确定车尔臣河和塔里木河在台特玛-康拉克湖水域面积变化中的作用,为水资源管理、提高塔里木河生态输水工程的修复效果提供科学依据。结果表明:台特玛-康拉克湖水域面积年际波动大,最大值和最小值分别为562.33km^(2)和1.5km^(2),出现在2020年和1976年,其与车尔臣河径流量及塔里木河生态输水量的变化吻合;塔里木河生态输水量与台特玛水域面积的关系显著,车尔臣河径流量变化与台特玛湖及康拉克湖水域面积变化均显著。这表明车尔臣河径流量变化对台特玛-康拉克湖水域面积变化的贡献也较大。因此在塔里木河下游生态修复工作中,需重视车尔臣河的贡献。

Resorptions of 10 mineral elements in leaves of desert shrubs and their contrasting responses to aridity

Aims We aim to investigate variations in the resorption efficiencies of 10 mineral nutrients[i.e.nitrogen(N),phosphorus(P),potassium(K),magnesium(Mg),calcium(Ca),manganese(Mn),zinc(Zn),alu-minum(Al),iron(Fe)and copper(Cu)]in leaves of desert shrubs and to explore effects of aridity on resorption efficiency of these nutrients.Methods Plant samples were collected from 10 sites in northern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China.Samples of green and senesced leaves were analysed to determine concentrations of N,P,K,Mg,Ca,Mn,Zn,Al,Fe and Cu and thus the nutrient resorption efficiency.Important Findings The mean nutrient concentrations in the desert shrubs varied,with the stoichiometric ratio Ca:N(19.3 mg g−1):K(10.5 mg g−1):Mg:P(1.01 mg g−1):Al:Fe:Mn:Zn:Cu(4.78 mg kg−1)=4038:2950:2199:1816:211:37:32:11:2:1 in green leaves;and Ca:N(12.6 mg g−1):Mg:K(7.6 mg g−1):P(0.56 mg g−1):Fe:Al:Mn:Zn:Cu(2.85 mg kg−1)=5583:3710:2943:2523:178:133:119:19:3.7:1 in senesced leaves.Resorption generally occurred for six elements(N,P,K,Cu,Mg and Mn,with average resorption efficiency 47.8%,52.0%,38.6%,41.0%,12.7%and 7.89%,respectively)during leaf senescence,while the other four nutrients tended to accumulate in senesced leaves,showing averagely negative resorption efficiencies[Ca(-3.87%),Al(−57.1%),Zn(−62.6%),Fe(−89.6%)].Aridity showed strikingly different effects on the resorption process of the 10 nutri-ents.Of the four elements with totally(N/P/K)or mostly(Cu)posi-tive observations of resorption efficiency,their resorption generally decreased with aridity,suggesting that drought stress had negative effects on the resorption efficiencies of these elements.In contrast,with at least one-third observations of resorption efficiency being negative,the other elements(Mg/Mn/Ca/Zn/Al/Fe)showed gener-ally increasing resorptive tendency with aridity,except for Zn.This research provided a systematic analysis on the large variation and contrasting responses of the resorption of multi-elements to aridity in typical desert shrubs.Our findings foster the understanding of nutrient resorption patterns of desert plants and enable us to better predict the contrastive effects of drought stress on the cycling of diverse nutrients and the consequent stoichiometric decoupling in plants of desert ecosystems.

Size- and age-dependent increases in tree stem carbon concentration: implications for forest carbon stock estimations

Aims Forest biomass carbon(C)stocks are usually estimated by multiplying biomass by a C conversion factor,i.e.C concentration.Thus,tree C concentration is crucial to the assessments of forest C cycles.As stems contribute to the large fraction of tree biomass,the canonical value of 50%or other simplified values of stem C concentration are widely used to represent the values of tree C concentration in the estimations of forest C stocks at different scales.However,C concentration variations between tree organs and within tree size and their impacts on forest C stocks are still unclear.Methods We conducted a global analysis of organ C concentration in age-specific trees based on 576 records of tree age,size(diameter at breast height and biomass)and C concentration data to evaluate the relationships between organ C concentrations and the changes of stem C concentration with tree age and size.Important Findings Tree C concentration varied significantly with organs.Stem C concentration of trees was significantly correlated with that of other tree organs,except for barks and reproductive organs.The stem C concentration increased significantly with tree size and age,which contributed to the increases in C contents of stems and trees.Using the C concentration in stems to represent the C concentrations of other organs and the whole tree could produce considerable errors in the estimations of forest C stocks(−8.6%to 25.6%and−2.5%to 5.9%,respectively).Our findings suggest that tree C accumulation in forests is related to the size-and age-dependent increases in stem C concentration and using specific C concentration values of tree organs can improve the estimations of forest C stocks.