Increasing carbon storage in subtropical forests over the Yangtze River basin and its relations to the major ecological projects

Rui Kong; Zengxin Zhang; Fengying Zhang; Jiaxi Tian; Juan Chang; Shanshan Jiang; Bin Zhu; Xi Chen

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136163

Increasing carbon storage in subtropical forests over the Yangtze River basin and its relations to the major ecological projects

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Mar 20:709:136163. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136163. Epub 2019 Dec 18.

Authors

Rui Kong¹, Zengxin Zhang², Fengying Zhang³, Jiaxi Tian⁴, Juan Chang⁵, Shanshan Jiang⁶, Bin Zhu⁷, Xi Chen⁸

Affiliations

¹ Joint Innovation Center for Modern Forestry Studies, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China. Electronic address: kongrui@njfu.edu.cn.
² Joint Innovation Center for Modern Forestry Studies, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China; State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulics Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China. Electronic address: zzhang@hhu.edu.cn.
³ Joint Innovation Center for Modern Forestry Studies, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China. Electronic address: zhangfengying@njfu.edu.cn.
⁴ Joint Innovation Center for Modern Forestry Studies, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China. Electronic address: tianjiaxi@njfu.edu.cn.
⁵ Joint Innovation Center for Modern Forestry Studies, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China. Electronic address: changjuan@njfu.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China. Electronic address: shantj@tju.edu.cn.
⁷ Joint Innovation Center for Modern Forestry Studies, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China. Electronic address: binzhu@njfu.edu.cn.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulics Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China. Electronic address: xichen@hhu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31905558
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136163

Abstract

Forest carbon stocks has an important role in the global carbon budget. Based on the satellite-observed and LPJ model simulated aboveground biomass carbon (ABC) data, the spatial and temporal changes of subtropical forest carbon storage in the Yangtze River basin and its relations to the climate variation and human activities were analyzed by using the methods of cumulative curve analysis and climate sensitivity analysis during 1993-2012. The results revealed that: (1) In general, the forest ABC increased obviously in the Yangtze River basin during the past 20 years, and the ABC rose from 2563.91 Tg C in 1993 to 2893.17 Tg C in 2012, with a growth rate of 12.84%. The higher ABC distribution was mainly concentrated in the Jialing River basin and Hanjiang River basin and the significantly increasing trends could be found in most area of the Yangtze River basin; (2) The forest ABC was sensitive to the changes of temperature and precipitation. When the temperature increases by 1 °C, the ABC in the Yangtze River basin will increase by 3.32%, while it will decrease by -6.12% when the precipitation increases by 10%; (3) The forest ABC growth rate had accelerated from 3.15% in 1993-2000 to 8.01% in 2001-2012. The cumulative curve of the forest ABC was generally higher than the temperature or the precipitation after 2000. The total areas induced by climate variation and human activities accounted for 30.5% and 52.59% with an increases in ABC by 67.52 Tg C and 188.74 Tg C from 1993 to 2012, respectively. The implementation of major forestry projects might be the main reason for the rapid increase of forest ABC in the Yangtze River basin. This study suggested human activities such as ecological projects might contribute to the accelerated greening trend and highlighted the pivotal role of subtropical forest ABC in the carbon budget in China.

Keywords: Aboveground biomass carbon (ABC); Climate change; Ecological projects; Forest; Yangtze River basin.

MeSH terms

Carbon
China
Forests*
Rivers*

Substances

Carbon