Increasing active biomass carbon may lead to a breakdown of mature forest equilibrium.

ABSTRACT: The finding that mature forest ecosystems increase carbon in woody tissues and mineral soils indicates that the original equilibriums are being pushed to a higher state. The final driving forces will probably be increasing CO2 and nitrogen deposition, global warming, and changes to precipitation patterns. However, which part of a mature forest bears the direct impacts of environmental changes and reactivates the balanced ecosystem processes remains unclear. Here, we investigated the living biomass of mature forests in the tropical and subtropical biomes in China and found that active organs and small individuals have accumulated carbon at a rate of 203 kg C ha(-1) yr(-1) in recent decades, whereas the woody tissues did not display carbon accumulation with statistical significance. Our find

SUBMITTER: Xiao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3890941 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature