Aboveground and root carbon stocks for Chinese arborvitae plantation following different silvicultural thinning

摘要

We applied thinning prescription in arborvitae plantation in the northern Beijing to hasten secondary succession. We quantified the effect of thinning on the distribution of vegetation carbon stocks, and on the carbon accumulation rates between 2005 and 2009. The carbon stocks in the trees were highest in all control plots and lowest in total plots from high thinning, while total understory carbon stocks were different with trees across treatments. Plots from the control in shady slope with thick slope, the low thinning in sunny slope with thick soil and the sunny slope with thinned soil were highest in carbon accumulation rates. These results suggest that carbon recover following the treatments, it can be necessary to consider the compensatory responses of understory vegetation as such shifts in growth form can affect in the allocation of carbon in the vegetation ecosystem.