Dataset Information

Allocation of forest biomass across broad precipitation gradients in China's forests.

ABSTRACT: Forests act as major sinks for atmospheric CO₂. An understanding of the relationship between forest biomass allocation and precipitation gradients is needed to estimate the impacts of changes in precipitation on carbon stores. Biomass patterns depend on tree size or age, making it unclear whether biomass allocation is limited by tree age at regional scales. Using a dataset of ten typical forest types spanning a large age scale, we evaluated forest biomass allocation-precipitation correlations with the aim of testing whether biomass allocation patterns vary systematically in response to altered precipitation. With increasing mean annual precipitation, a significant quadratic increase occurred in ?30?yr and >60?yr groups in stem biomass, >60?yr group in branch biomass, and >60?yr groups in leaf biomass; and a significant cubic increase occurred in 30-60?yr and all age forest groups in stem biomass, ?30?yr, 30-60?yr and all age forest groups in branch biomass, ?30?yr and all age forest groups in leaf biomass, and in each group in root biomass, indicating that organ biomass is strongly limited by precipitation. Thus, forest biomass responds predictably to changes in mean annual precipitation. The results suggest that forest organ biomass-precipitation relationships hold across independent datasets that encompass a broad climatic range and forest age.

SUBMITTER: Lie Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6043570 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Allocation of forest biomass across broad precipitation gradients in China's forests.

Lie Zhiyang Z Xue Li L Jacobs Douglass F DF

Scientific reports 20180712 1

Forests act as major sinks for atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>. An understanding of the relationship between forest biomass allocation and precipitation gradients is needed to estimate the impacts of changes in precipitation on carbon stores. Biomass patterns depend on tree size or age, making it unclear whether biomass allocation is limited by tree age at regional scales. Using a dataset of ten typical forest types spanning a large age scale, we evaluated forest biomass allocation-precipitation corr ...[more]

PMID: 30002495

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Project description:In theory, changes in the amount of rainfall can change plant biomass allocation and subsequently influence coupled plant-soil microbial processes. However, testing patterns of combined responses of plants and soils remains a knowledge gap for terrestrial ecosystems. We carried out a comprehensive review of the available literature and conducted a meta-analysis to explore combined plant and soil microbial responses in grasslands exposed to experimental precipitation changes. We measured the effects of experimental precipitation changes on plant biomass, biomass allocation, and soil microbial biomass and tested for trade-offs between plant and soil responses to altered precipitation. We found that aboveground and belowground plant biomass responded asynchronically to precipitation changes, thereby leading to shifts in plant biomass allocation. Belowground plant biomass did not change under precipitation changes, but aboveground plant biomass decreased in precipitation reduction and increased in precipitation addition. There was a trade-off between responses of aboveground plant biomass and belowground plant biomass to precipitation reduction, but correlation wasn't found for precipitation addition. Microbial biomass carbon (C) did not change under the treatments of precipitation reduction. Increased root allocation may buffer drought stress for soil microbes through root exudations and neutralize microbial responses to precipitation reduction. However, precipitation addition increased microbial biomass C, potentially reflecting the removal of water limitation for soil microbial growth. We found that there were positive correlations between responses of aboveground plant biomass and microbial biomass C to precipitation addition, indicating that increased shoot growth probably promoted microbial responses via litter inputs. In sum, our study suggested that aboveground, belowground plant biomass and soil microbial biomass can respond asynchronically to precipitation changes, and emphasizes that testing the plant-soil system as a whole is necessary for forecasting the effects of precipitation changes on grassland systems.

Dataset Information

Allocation of forest biomass across broad precipitation gradients in China's forests.

Publications

Allocation of forest biomass across broad precipitation gradients in China's forests.

Similar Datasets

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