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Substantial amounts of carbon are sequestered during dry periods in an old-growth subtropical forest in South China

  • Special Feature: Original Article
  • Lessons learned from CarboEastAsia: Carbon and water cycles in East Asian terrestrial ecosystems
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Journal of Forest Research

Abstract

A number of continuous eddy covariance measurements and long-term biomass inventories had proved that old-growth forests are carbon sinks worldwide. The present study estimated the net ecosystem productivity (NEP) for an old-growth subtropical forest at the Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve in South China to investigate the temporal pattern of carbon sequestration, both seasonally and annually. The measured NEP over 7 years (from 2003 to 2009) showed that this forest was a net carbon sink, ranging from 230 (in 2008) to 489 g C m−2 year−1 (in 2004). The greatest value of NEP was found in the driest year and the lowest value in the wettest year during the study period. Within a year, NEP during the dry season was about 81.4 % higher than for the wet season. Accordingly, the dry season at seasonal scale and dry years at interannual scale are key periods for carbon sequestration in this forest. The strong seasonality of ecosystem or soil respiration (ER or SR) compared with gross primary productivity (GPP) resulted in substantial amounts of carbon being sequestered during dry seasons. A decrease of GPP and an increase of ER or SR demonstrated the lower carbon uptake in rainy years. From this study, we conclude that GPP and living biomass carbon increment are not overriding parameters controlling NEP. The variations in ER or SR driven by the rainfall scheme were the dominant factor determining the magnitude of NEP in this forest in South China.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program (2011CB403202), Strategic Priority Research Program, CAS (grant no. X DA05050205), and Asia 3 Foresight Program (30721140307). We are also grateful for sustained support from the staff of the Dinghushan Forest Research Station.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 723 Xingke Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510650, China

    Junhua Yan, Xingzhao Liu, Xuli Tang, Qingqing Chen & Kun Li

  2. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Guirui Yu & Leiming Zhang

  3. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xingzhao Liu, Qingqing Chen & Kun Li

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  1. Junhua Yan
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  2. Xingzhao Liu
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Correspondence to Junhua Yan.

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Yan, J., Liu, X., Tang, X. et al. Substantial amounts of carbon are sequestered during dry periods in an old-growth subtropical forest in South China. J For Res 18, 21–30 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-012-0363-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-012-0363-0

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