The effects of reforestation on carbon (C) sequestration in China's Loess Plateau ecosystem have attracted much research attention in recent years. Black locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) are valued for thei...The effects of reforestation on carbon (C) sequestration in China's Loess Plateau ecosystem have attracted much research attention in recent years. Black locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) are valued for their important use in reforestation and water and soil conservation efforts. This forest type is widespread across the Loess Plateau, and must he an essential component of any planning for C sequestration efforts in this fragile ecological region. The long-term effects of stand age on C accumulation and allocation after reforestation remains uncertain. We examined an age-sequence of black locust forest (5, 9, 20, 30, 38, and 56 yr since planting) on the Loess Plateau to evaluate C accumulation and allocation in plants (trees, shrubs, herbages, and leaf litter) and soil (0-100 cm). Allometric equations were developed for estimating the biomass of tree components (leaf, branch, stem without bark, bark and root) with a de- structive sampling method. Our results demonstrated that black locust forest ecosystem accumulated C constantly, from 31.42 Mg C/ha (1 Mg = 106 g) at 5 yr to 79.44 Mg C/haat 38 yr. At the 'old forest' stage (38 to 56 yr), the amount of C in plant biomass significantly decreased (from 45.32 to 34.52 Mg C/ha) due to the high mortality of trees. However, old forest was able to accumulate C continuously in soil (from 33.66 to 41.00 Mg C/ha). The C in shrub biomass increased with stand age, while the C stock in the herbage layer and leaf litter was age-independent. Reforestation resulted in C re-allocation in the forest soil. The topsoil (0-20 cm) C stock increased constantly with stand age. However, C storage in sub-top soil, in the 20-30, 30-50, 50-100, and 20-100 cm layers, was age-independent. These results suggest that succession, as a temporal factor, plays a key role in C accumulation and re-allocation in black locust forests and also in regional C dynamics in vegetation.展开更多
This paper presents a general standard for the low-benefit black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) torests m Loess Plateau based on defining the concept of “tri-low forest”, and emphasizes the major factors which r...This paper presents a general standard for the low-benefit black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) torests m Loess Plateau based on defining the concept of “tri-low forest”, and emphasizes the major factors which result in low-benefit black locust, such as, lack of soil moisture of forest and nutrient, breaching the principle of matching tree species to sites, and high density of forests. Based on different characteristics of low-benefit forests, following the principle of “adjusting measures to local conditions, giving priority to ecological benefits, assisting with economic benefits”, the authors put forward some technical ways to reform low-benefit black locust forests, for example, taking measurements of collecting runoff and storing water, lowering the forest density, introducing mixed forests and transforming species, directive breeding and so on.展开更多
基金Under the auspices of Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.XDA05060300)
文摘The effects of reforestation on carbon (C) sequestration in China's Loess Plateau ecosystem have attracted much research attention in recent years. Black locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) are valued for their important use in reforestation and water and soil conservation efforts. This forest type is widespread across the Loess Plateau, and must he an essential component of any planning for C sequestration efforts in this fragile ecological region. The long-term effects of stand age on C accumulation and allocation after reforestation remains uncertain. We examined an age-sequence of black locust forest (5, 9, 20, 30, 38, and 56 yr since planting) on the Loess Plateau to evaluate C accumulation and allocation in plants (trees, shrubs, herbages, and leaf litter) and soil (0-100 cm). Allometric equations were developed for estimating the biomass of tree components (leaf, branch, stem without bark, bark and root) with a de- structive sampling method. Our results demonstrated that black locust forest ecosystem accumulated C constantly, from 31.42 Mg C/ha (1 Mg = 106 g) at 5 yr to 79.44 Mg C/haat 38 yr. At the 'old forest' stage (38 to 56 yr), the amount of C in plant biomass significantly decreased (from 45.32 to 34.52 Mg C/ha) due to the high mortality of trees. However, old forest was able to accumulate C continuously in soil (from 33.66 to 41.00 Mg C/ha). The C in shrub biomass increased with stand age, while the C stock in the herbage layer and leaf litter was age-independent. Reforestation resulted in C re-allocation in the forest soil. The topsoil (0-20 cm) C stock increased constantly with stand age. However, C storage in sub-top soil, in the 20-30, 30-50, 50-100, and 20-100 cm layers, was age-independent. These results suggest that succession, as a temporal factor, plays a key role in C accumulation and re-allocation in black locust forests and also in regional C dynamics in vegetation.
文摘This paper presents a general standard for the low-benefit black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) torests m Loess Plateau based on defining the concept of “tri-low forest”, and emphasizes the major factors which result in low-benefit black locust, such as, lack of soil moisture of forest and nutrient, breaching the principle of matching tree species to sites, and high density of forests. Based on different characteristics of low-benefit forests, following the principle of “adjusting measures to local conditions, giving priority to ecological benefits, assisting with economic benefits”, the authors put forward some technical ways to reform low-benefit black locust forests, for example, taking measurements of collecting runoff and storing water, lowering the forest density, introducing mixed forests and transforming species, directive breeding and so on.