Tree Diversity, Carbon Storage, and Soil Nutrient in an Old‐Growth Forest at Changbai Mountain, Northeast China

Abstract

The study of plant diversity and its role in ecosystem functioning is becoming a central issue in ecology. The relationships between carbon storage and tree diversity of natural forest at small scale are still unclear. This research investigated these relationships in an old‐growth forest at Changbai Mountain, Northeast China. It was found that at small scale, tree carbon storage generally increases with increasing tree species richness, but for stands with same species richness, tree carbon storage varies dramatically. At the small scale, tree species evenness has a significantly linear relationship with nature logarithm of total tree carbon storage. The stand carbon storage of trees is mainly controlled by stand tree composition. Fraxinus mandshurica, Pinus koraiensis, Quercus mongolica, Tilia amurensis, and Acer mono contribute more than 85% of stand carbon storage of trees. Stands with similar tree composition at small scale have different soil organic carbon storage and nutrient contents. Tree species evenness has great impact on soil N content at the soil horizon less than 30 cm deep, but its impacts on C/N, P, K, and S contents are small. Tree density has a negative linear relationship with soil organic C and C∶N ratio at the soil horizon is less than 30 cm deep. The implication of our findings here for carbon sequestration in the Kyoto Protocol is also discussed.

Keywords:

• Carbon storage
• mixed broadleaved and coniferous Korean pine forest
• soil nutrient
• species evenness
• species richness
• tree composition

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jutta Burger for her editorial assistance in the earlier version of this manuscript. This research was partially supported by China National Key Basic Research Program (G1999043407) and the School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of Alabama, A&M University.