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Ecosystem carbon storage in forest fragments of differing patch size

Lei Ma,Chunyu Shen,Duo Lou,S. Fu,D. Guan

Published 2017 in Scientific Reports

ABSTRACT

Forest fragmentation threatens the ecosystem carbon (C) storage. The distribution patterns of ecosystem C density are poorly documented for fragmented forests of differing patch size. The objectives of this study were to examine C density in these forest ecosystems and the influence of edge effects on C density. Allometric equations were used to quantify aboveground biomass. Carbon density was estimated by analyzing the C concentration of each component. We found that ecosystem carbon density ranged from 173.9 Mg ha−1 in the small sized forest fragments, to 341.1 Mg ha−1 in the contiguous evergreen sub-tropical forest. Trees (46.5%) and mineral soil (50.2%) were the two largest contributors to the total ecosystem C pool in all fragments. Both C and nitrogen (N) in soil and fine roots were highly heterogeneous among the different fragment sizes and soil depths. We concluded that ecosystem C density of forest fragments were significantly influenced by patch size and edge effects. The fragmented forests in southern China play an important role in the C budget, and need urgent conservation. These results are likely to be further integrated into forest management plans and generalized into other contexts, to evaluate C stocks at the landscape scale.

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