Using Production/biomass Ratio as an Indicator for Forest Ecosystem Assessment and Management

摘要

The ratio of production to biomass (P/B) is widely used in aquatic ecosystem research, but is seldom used in forest ecosystem analysis. Here it is reported that this indicator can characterize some ecosystem nature of main Chinese forest types and biomes based on the published literature. Most Chinese forests can reach their maturity in about 100 years. P/B ratios were almost the same for the artificial Korean pine forests on locations with different site indices. For a natural mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest, the B/P (reverse of P/B) ratio increased dramatically after about 50 years and the stand tree density was around 2000 stem ha~(-1). The implications of using P/B ratio in forest naturalness and integrity measurement, risk of forest fire and forest management (such as thinning design) are discussed.