Abstract
This study examined the biomass and carbon pools of the main ecosystem components in an age sequence of five Korean pine plantation forest stands in central Korea. The C contents in the tree and ground vegetation biomass, coarse woody debris, forest floor, and mineral soil were estimated by analyzing the C concentration of each component. The aboveground and total tree biomass increased with increasing stand age. The highest C concentration across this chronosequence was found in the tree branch while the lowest C concentration was found in the ground vegetation. The observed C contents for tree components, ground vegetation, and coarse woody debris were generally lower than the predicted C contents estimated from a biomass C factor of 0.5. Forest floor C content was age-independent. Total mineral soil C content appeared to decline initially after establishing Korean pine plantations and recover by the stand age of 35 years. Although aboveground tree biomass C content showed considerable accumulation with increasing age, the relative contribution of below ground C to total ecosystem C content varied substantially. These results suggest that successional development as temporal factor has a key role in estimating the C storage in Korean pine plantation forests.
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This study was carried out with the support of “Forest Science & Technology Projects (Project No. S1107L0101)” provided by Korea Forest Service.
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Li, X., Yi, M.J., Son, Y. et al. Biomass and Carbon Storage in an Age-Sequence of Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis) Plantation Forests in Central Korea. J. Plant Biol. 54, 33–42 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-010-9140-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-010-9140-9