Beneficial effects of warming on temperate tree carbon storage depend on precipitation and mycorrhizal types

Guoyong Yan; Qinggui Wang; Shijie Han; Zhongling Guo; Jinghua Yu; Wenjie Wang; Chunnan Fan; Wei Cao; Lihua Wang; Yajuan Xing; Zhi Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153086

Beneficial effects of warming on temperate tree carbon storage depend on precipitation and mycorrhizal types

Sci Total Environ. 2022 May 1:819:153086. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153086. Epub 2022 Jan 15.

Authors

Guoyong Yan¹, Qinggui Wang², Shijie Han³, Zhongling Guo⁴, Jinghua Yu⁵, Wenjie Wang⁶, Chunnan Fan⁴, Wei Cao⁵, Lihua Wang⁵, Yajuan Xing⁷, Zhi Zhang⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China.
² School of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China; College of Modern Agriculture and Ecological Environment, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China. Electronic address: qgwang1970@163.com.
³ School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China; Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China.
⁴ School of Forestry, Beihua University, Jilin 132013, China.
⁵ Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China.
⁶ School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China; Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China.
⁷ School of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China; College of Modern Agriculture and Ecological Environment, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China.
⁸ College of Modern Agriculture and Ecological Environment, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China.

PMID: 35038543
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153086

Abstract

Despite evidence from multiple observation data sets and numerical model simulations that interactions between biotic and abiotic factors control tree carbon (C) storage in the Northern Hemisphere, it remains unclear whether the effect of one factor will be altered by other factors. Here, we used forest inventory data consisting of more than 500,000 trees from 1910 plots to explore the relative importance of these drivers of plant C storage in northeast China. We found that tree C storage was significantly positively associated with mean annual temperature (MAT). After controlling for the role of mean annual precipitation (MAP), directionality in the tree C storage-MAT relationship reversed, indicating that the direction of MAT affecting tree C storage depends on MAP. Accounting for the effects of tree-fungal symbioses on plant resistance to drought and warming, we found that warming increased AM tree C storage even after controlling the role of MAP, but decreased EcM tree C storage after controlling the role of MAP. Our analysis also shows that species richness, especially the relative richness of AM tree species, had a significantly positive relationship with all types of tree C storage. Our findings have implications for improving temperate forest C sink and afforestation strategies: the increasing richness of AM trees has the potential to enhance the tree C sink and reduce the sensitivity of warming-induced tree growth benefits to changes in precipitation.

Keywords: Climate change; Plant-fungal symbioses; Temperate forest; Tree carbon storage.

MeSH terms

Carbon
Climate Change
Droughts
Forests
Mycorrhizae*
Trees*

Substances

Carbon