Subtropical Plantations are Large Carbon Sink: Evidence from Two Monoculture Plantations in South China
Forest plantations occupy approximately 264 million ha worldwide, which support the increasing local and global demands for wood and have been considered as potential fast-response carbon sinks that may mitigate the rise of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. In China, the area of plantations is nearly 62 million ha because of large-scale reforestation and afforestation programs since 1980s.
Dr. CHEN Dima and Prof. FU Shenglei from South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, investigated net primary production (NPP), heterotrophic respiration (Rh) and net ecosystem production (NEP) in a two-year-old Eucalyptus urophylla plantation and a two-year-old Acacia carssicarpa plantation. They found that annual Rhs were 2380 and 800 g C m？2yr？1, NPPs were 420 and 470 g C m？2 yr？1, NEPs were 1960 and 330 g C m？2 yr？1 in Eucalyptus and Acacia plantations, respectively. Moreover it is necessary to assess the effects of corrections for disturbances of soil temperature and soil moisture on the estimation of soil CO2 efflux partitioning.
The study highlights that subtropical plantations are large carbon sink from two monoculture plantations in the developmental stage in South China. This work has been online published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, a leading international journal in forestry field.
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Shenglei Fu, Professor
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems,
South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Guangzhou 510650, China
Phone: +86-20-37252722; Fax: +86-20-37252831; E-mail: sfu@scbg.ac.cn
The landscape of reforested plantations in the Heshan Field Research Station.
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