Global pattern of organic carbon pools in forest soils.

Understanding the mechanisms of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in forests is vital to ecosystem carbon budgeting and helps gain insight in the functioning and sustainable management of world forests. An explicit knowledge of the mechanisms driving global SOC sequestration in forests is still lacking because of the complex interplays between climate, soil, and forest type in influencing SOC pool size and stability. Based on a synthesis of 1179 observations from 292 studies across global forests, we quantified the relative importance of climate, soil property, and forest type on total SOC content and the specific contents of physical (particulate vs.

Spatial-temporal variation of the carbon sequestration rate of afforestation in China: Implications for carbon trade and planning.

Afforestation and reforestation (A&R) are nature-based and cost-effective solutions for enhancing terrestrial carbon sinks and facilitating faster carbon neutrality. However, the lack of hierarchical spatial-temporal maps for the carbon sequestration rate (CSR) from A&R at the national scale impedes the scientific implementation of forest management planning to a large extent. Here, we assessed the spatial-temporal CSR per area for A&R at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels in China using a forest carbon sequestration model under three climate scenarios.

Carbon sequestration of Chinese forests from 2010 to 2060: spatiotemporal dynamics and its regulatory strategies.

Forestation is important for sequestering atmospheric carbon, and it is a cost-effective and nature-based solution (NBS) for mitigating global climate change. Here, under the assumption of forestation in the potential plantable lands, we used the forest carbon sequestration (FCS) model and field survey involving 3365 forest plots to assess the carbon sequestration rate (CSR) of Chinese existing and new forestation forests from 2010 to 2060 under three forestation and three climate scenarios. Without considering the influence of extreme events and human disturbance, the estimated average CSR in Chinese forests was 0.

Contrasting vegetation response to climate change between two monsoon regions in Southwest China: The roles of climate condition and vegetation height.

Southwest China is an important biodiversity hotspot in the world and is controlled by the Pacific and Indian Ocean monsoon in the east and west part respectively. However, how abiotic and biotic factors affect the response of vegetation to climate change in different monsoon regions is still not clear. Here we used the annual change rate of growing-season normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI trend) during 1982-2015 to explore the vulnerability of vegetation (forests and shrubs) activity to climate change in southwest China.

Impacts of landscape patterns on water-related ecosystem services under natural restoration in Liaohe River Reserve, China.

Understanding changes in ecosystem services and their drivers is important for effective riparian ecosystem conservation and restoration. In the study, changes in water-related ecosystem services (soil conservation, water purification, and water yield) from 2007 to 2015 in Liaohe River Reserve, China were analyzed using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs model. Impacts of landscape patterns on ecosystem services for different stages of restoration, i.

Nutrient trade-offs mediated by ectomycorrhizal strategies in plants: Evidence from an species in subalpine forests.

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) symbiosis is an evolutionary biological trait of higher plants for effective nutrient uptakes. However, little is known that how the formation and morphological differentiations of ECM roots mediate the nutrients of below- and aboveground plant tissues and the balance among nutrient elements across environmental gradients. Here, we investigated the effects of ECM foraging strategies on root and foliar N and P concentrations and N:P ratio under variations of climate and soil conditions.

Lateral heterogeneity of soil physicochemical properties in riparian zones after agricultural abandonment.

The study aimed to identify the lateral heterogeneity of soil physicochemical properties in riparian zones, and its underlying drivers during natural restoration after agricultural abandonment. Abandoned farmlands, after 5-year natural restoration, within 500 m from the edges on both sides of Liaohe River were selected as the study area. Soil physicochemical properties of four lateral buffers (<10 m, 10~100 m, 100~300 m, and >300 m from river edge, respectively) along riparian zones were measured.

Effects of temperature, soil substrate, and microbial community on carbon mineralization across three climatically contrasting forest sites.

How biotic and abiotic factors influence soil carbon (C) mineralization rate () has recently emerged as one of the focal interests in ecological studies. To determine the relative effects of temperature, soil substrate and microbial community on , we conducted a laboratory experiment involving reciprocal microbial inoculations of three zonal forest soils, and measured over a 61-day period at three temperatures (5, 15, and 25°C). Results show that both and the cumulative emission of C (), normalized to per unit soil organic C (SOC), were significantly affected by incubation temperature, soil substrate, microbial inoculum treatment, and their interactions (<.

Differential controls on soil carbon density and mineralization among contrasting forest types in a temperate forest ecosystem.

Understanding the controls on soil carbon dynamics is crucial for modeling responses of ecosystem carbon balance to global change, yet few studies provide explicit knowledge on the direct and indirect effects of forest stands on soil carbon via microbial processes. We investigated tree species, soil, and site factors in relation to soil carbon density and mineralization in a temperate forest of central China. We found that soil microbial biomass and community structure, extracellular enzyme activities, and most of the site factors studied varied significantly across contrasting forest types, and that the associations between activities of soil extracellular enzymes and microbial community structure appeared to be weak and inconsistent across forest types, implicating complex mechanisms in the microbial regulation of soil carbon metabolism in relation to tree species.

Soil microbial responses to forest floor litter manipulation and nitrogen addition in a mixed-wood forest of northern China.

Changes in litterfall dynamics and soil properties due to anthropogenic or natural perturbations have important implications to soil carbon (C) and nutrient cycling via microbial pathway. Here we determine soil microbial responses to contrasting types of litter inputs (leaf vs. fine woody litter) and nitrogen (N) deposition by conducting a multi-year litter manipulation and N addition experiment in a mixed-wood forest.

Maximum temperature accounts for annual soil CO2 efflux in temperate forests of Northern China.

It will help understand the representation legality of soil temperature to explore the correlations of soil respiration with variant properties of soil temperature. Soil temperature at 10 cm depth was hourly logged through twelve months. Basing on the measured soil temperature, soil respiration at different temporal scales were calculated using empirical functions for temperate forests.

Assessment of vegetation establishment on tailings dam at an iron ore mining site of suburban Beijing, China, 7 years after reclamation with contrasting site treatment methods.

Strip-mining operations greatly disturb soil, vegetation and landscape elements, causing many ecological and environmental problems. Establishment of vegetation is a critical step in achieving the goal of ecosystem restoration in mining areas. At the Shouyun Iron Ore Mine in suburban Beijing, China, we investigated selective vegetation and soil traits on a tailings dam 7 years after site treatments with three contrasting approaches: (1) soil covering (designated as SC), (2) application of a straw mat, known as "vegetation carpet", which contains prescribed plant seed mix and water retaining agent (designated as VC), on top of sand piles, and (3) combination of soil covering and application of vegetation carpet (designated as SC+VC).

Specificity responses of grasshoppers in temperate grasslands to diel asymmetric warming.

Background: Global warming is characterized by not only an increase in the daily mean temperature, but also a diel asymmetric pattern. However, most of the current studies on climate change have only concerned with the mean values of the warming trend. Although many studies have been conducted concerning the responses of insects to climate change, studies that address the issue of diel asymmetric warming under field conditions are not found in the literature.

Litter decomposition and nutrient release as affected by soil nitrogen availability and litter quality in a semiarid grassland ecosystem.

Nitrogen availability is critically important to litter decomposition, especially in arid and semiarid areas where N is limiting. We studied the relative contributions of litter quality and soil N to litter decomposition of two dominant grassland species, Stipa krylovii and Artemisia frigida, in a semiarid typical steppe ecosystem in Inner Mongolia, China. The study had four different rates of N addition (0, 8, 32, and 64 g N m(-2) year(-1)), and litter samples were decomposed under varying site conditions and by litter types.

Grassland ecosystems in China: review of current knowledge and research advancement.

Grasslands are the dominant landscape in China, accounting for 40% of the national land area. Research concerning China's grassland ecosystems can be chronologically summarized into four periods: (i) pre-1950s, preliminary research and survey of grassland vegetation and plant species by Russians, Japanese and Western Europeans, (ii) 1950-1975, exploration and survey of vegetation, soils and topography as part of natural resource inventory programmes by regional and national institutions mainly led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, (iii) 1976-1995, establishment of field stations for long-term ecological monitoring and studies of ecosystem processes, (iv) 1996-present, comprehensive studies of community dynamics and ecosystem function integrating multi-scale and multidisciplinary approaches and experimental manipulations. Major findings of scientific significance in China's grassland ecosystem research include: (i) improved knowledge on succession and biogeochemistry of the semi-arid and temperate grassland ecosystems, (ii) elucidation of life-history strategies and diapause characteristics of the native grasshopper species as one of the key grassland pests, and (iii) development of effective management strategies for controlling rodent pests in grassland ecosystems.