Biomass production and carbon sequestration of a short-rotation forest with different poplar clones in northwest China

Yan Meifang; Wang Lu; Ren Honghui; Zhang Xinshi

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.02.103

Biomass production and carbon sequestration of a short-rotation forest with different poplar clones in northwest China

Sci Total Environ. 2017 May 15:586:1135-1140. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.02.103. Epub 2017 Feb 17.

Authors

Yan Meifang¹, Wang Lu², Ren Honghui³, Zhang Xinshi⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, 79 Yingzexi Street, Taiyuan 030024, China; State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Haidian District, Beijing 100093, China. Electronic address: mfyan2010@aliyun.com.
² College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, 79 Yingzexi Street, Taiyuan 030024, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Haidian District, Beijing 100093, China; College of Mine Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, 79 Yingzexi Street, Taiyuan 030024, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Haidian District, Beijing 100093, China.

PMID: 28222922
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.02.103

Abstract

Short Rotation Forestry (SRF) is of interest as producers of biomass for bio-energy, but also as carbon (C) sinks to mitigate CO₂ emission. To investigate biomass production and C sequestration of SRF, ecosystem C stock (including C stored in tree biomass, litter and soil), NPP (net primary productivity), heterotrophic respiration (Rh) and NEP (net ecosystem productivity) of three poplar clone plantations were estimated by repeated field sampling in northwest China. Ecosystem C stock (105.62MgCha^-1) was significantly lower in PB (P. balsamifera) stand than in PD (P. deltoids) and PE (P.×euramericana) stands (P<0.01). Biomass C stock was greatly affected by clone type (P<0.01), while significant difference in soil C stock was not detected. Averaged NPP was 8.80MgCha^-1yr^-1 across all clone stands, but the most productive clone of PD yielded up to 10.72MgCha^-1yr^-1. NEP was found to be significantly different among the clone stands, increasing from 0.21MgCha^-1yr^-1 in PB to 6.77MgCha^-1yr^-1 in PD stand. With soil C outputs (Rh) being smaller than C sequestrations, the plantations all acted as C sinks, averagely absorbing 3.45MgCha^-1 during a year. Our results suggest that clone type is a main factor influencing C sequestration capacity of a plantation, along with determining the amount of biomass yield. The success of poplar plantations as a bio-energy resource largely depends on the selection of hybrid varieties.

Keywords: Heterotrophic respiration; Net ecosystem productivity; Net primary productivity; Poplar hybrid.