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Zhao D, Bi H, Wang N, Liu Z, Hou G, Huang J, Song Y. Does increasing forest age lead to greater trade-offs in ecosystem services? A study of a Robinia pseudoacacia artificial forest on the Loess Plateau, China. Sci Total Environ 2024; 926:171737. [PMID: 38508272 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2023] [Revised: 03/13/2024] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024]
Abstract
Artificial forest ecosystems offer various ecosystem services (ES) and help mitigate climate change effects. Trade-offs or synergies exist among ES in artificial forests. Although forest age influences ES and ecosystem processes, the long-term dynamics of trade-offs among ES in artificial forests and during vegetation restorations remain unclear, complicating vegetation and sustainable management. We studied a Robinia pseudoacacia plantation on the Loess Plateau, China, with a restoration time of 10-44 years. The entropy weight method was used to assess five ES (carbon sequestration, water conservation, soil conservation, understory plant diversity, and runoff and sediment reduction) and investigate how ES change with forest age. The root mean square deviation (RMSD) was used to quantify the trade-offs among ES, and redundancy analysis (RDA) analysis was used to identify the key factors influencing the ES and trade-offs. The results showed that (1) as forest age increased, ES scores initially increased and then decreased. The optimal range for ES values was observed during the middle-aged to mature stages of the forest. (2) Before reaching maturity, the planted forests primarily delivered services related to water conservation and runoff and sediment reduction. (3) In young forests, ES showed a synergistic relationship (RMSD = 0.06), whereas trade-offs occurred in forests at other ages. The largest trade-off was observed in middle-aged forests. (4) The ES pairs with the dominant trade-offs in planted forests differed at different forest age stages. The largest trade-off occurred between carbon sequestration and water conservation (RMSD = 0.28). RDA analysis showed that understory vegetation coverage had a positive correlation with all ES. The ES indicators that significantly (P < 0.001) affected the water‑carbon trade-off were tree carbon storage, soil organic carbon storage, soil total nitrogen, and soil total phosphorus. Thus, the water and carbon relationship must be balanced, and the key factors affecting ES trade-offs in forest management must be regulated to support ES multifunctionality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danyang Zhao
- Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Huaxing Bi
- Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China; State Key Laboratory of Efficient Production of Forest Resources, Beijing 100083, China; Ji County Station, Chinese National Ecosystem Research Network (CNERN), Beijing 100083, China; Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Engineering Research Centre of Soil and Water Conservation, Engineering Research Center of Forestry Ecological Engineering, Ministry of Education (Beijing Forestry University), Beijing 100083, China.
| | - Ning Wang
- Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Zehui Liu
- Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Guirong Hou
- College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
| | - Jinghan Huang
- Southwest Survey and Planning Institute of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Kunming 650031, China
| | - Yilin Song
- Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
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Yang H, Li X, Wang Z, Jia R, Liu L, Chen Y, Wei Y, Gao Y, Li G. Carbon sequestration capacity of shifting sand dune after establishing new vegetation in the Tengger Desert, northern China. Sci Total Environ 2014; 478:1-11. [PMID: 24530579 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.01.063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2013] [Revised: 01/13/2014] [Accepted: 01/17/2014] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
Reconstructing vegetation in arid and semiarid areas has become an increasingly important management strategy to realize habitat recovery, mitigate desertification and global climate change. To assess the carbon sequestration potential in areas where sand-binding vegetation has been established on shifting sand dunes by planting xeric shrubs located near the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert in northern China, we conducted a field investigation of restored dune regions that were established at different times (20, 30, 47, and 55 years ago) in the same area. We quantified the total organic carbon (TOC) in each ecosystem by summing the individual carbon contributions from the soil (soil organic carbon; SOC), shrubs, and grasses in each system. We found that the TOC, as well as the amount of organic carbon in the soil, shrubs, and grasses, significantly increased over time in the restored areas. The average annual rate of carbon sequestration was highest in the first 20 years after restoration (3.26 × 10(-2)kg·m(-2) ·year(-1)), and reached a stable rate (2.14 × 10(-2) kg·m(-2) ·year(-1)) after 47 years. Organic carbon storage in soil represented the largest carbon pool for both restored systems and a system containing native vegetation, accounting for 67.6%-85.0% of the TOC. Carbon in grass root biomass, aboveground grass biomass, litter, aboveground shrub biomass, and shrub root biomass account for 10.0%-21.0%, 0.2%-0.6%, 0.1%-0.2%, 1.7%-12.1% and 0.9%-6.2% of the TOC, respectively. Furthermore, we found that the 55-year-old restored system has the capacity to accumulate more TOC (1.02 kg·m(-2) more) to reach the TOC level found in the natural vegetation system. These results suggest that restoring desert ecosystems may be a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere and mitigate the effects of global climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haotian Yang
- Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
| | - Xinrong Li
- Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Zengru Wang
- Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Rongliang Jia
- Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Lichao Liu
- Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Yongle Chen
- Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Yongping Wei
- Australian-China Center on Water Resources, Melbourne University, Australia
| | - Yanhong Gao
- Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Gang Li
- Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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