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      Near Isometric Biomass Partitioning in Forest Ecosystems of China

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          Abstract

          Based on the isometric hypothesis, belowground plant biomass (M B) should scale isometrically with aboveground biomass (M A) and the scaling exponent should not vary with environmental factors. We tested this hypothesis using a large forest biomass database collected in China. Allometric scaling functions relating M B and M A were developed for the entire database and for different groups based on tree age, diameter at breast height, height, latitude, longitude or elevation. To investigate whether the scaling exponent is independent of these biotic and abiotic factors, we analyzed the relationship between the scaling exponent and these factors. Overall M B was significantly related to M A with a scaling exponent of 0.964. The scaling exponent of the allometric function did not vary with tree age, density, latitude, or longitude, but varied with diameter at breast height, height, and elevation. The mean of the scaling exponent over all groups was 0.986. Among 57 scaling relationships developed, 26 of the scaling exponents were not significantly different from 1. Our results generally support the isometric hypothesis. M B scaled near isometrically with M A and the scaling exponent did not vary with tree age, density, latitude, or longitude, but increased with tree size and elevation. While fitting a single allometric scaling relationship may be adequate, the estimation of M B from M A could be improved with size-specific scaling relationships.

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          Most cited references13

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          Changes in forest biomass carbon storage in China between 1949 and 1998.

          The location and mechanisms responsible for the carbon sink in northern mid-latitude lands are uncertain. Here, we used an improved estimation method of forest biomass and a 50-year national forest resource inventory in China to estimate changes in the storage of living biomass between 1949 and 1998. Our results suggest that Chinese forests released about 0.68 petagram of carbon between 1949 and 1980, for an annual emission rate of 0.022 petagram of carbon. Carbon storage increased significantly after the late 1970s from 4.38 to 4.75 petagram of carbon by 1998, for a mean accumulation rate of 0.021 petagram of carbon per year, mainly due to forest expansion and regrowth. Since the mid-1970s, planted forests (afforestation and reforestation) have sequestered 0.45 petagram of carbon, and their average carbon density increased from 15.3 to 31.1 megagrams per hectare, while natural forests have lost an additional 0.14 petagram of carbon, suggesting that carbon sequestration through forest management practices addressed in the Kyoto Protocol could help offset industrial carbon dioxide emissions.
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            Global allocation rules for patterns of biomass partitioning in seed plants.

            A general allometric model has been derived to predict intraspecific and interspecific scaling relationships among seed plant leaf, stem, and root biomass. Analysis of a large compendium of standing organ biomass sampled across a broad sampling of taxa inhabiting diverse ecological habitats supports the relations predicted by the model and defines the boundary conditions for above- and below-ground biomass partitioning. These canonical biomass relations are insensitive to phyletic affiliation (conifers versus angiosperms) and variation in averaged local environmental conditions. The model thus identifies and defines the limits that have guided the diversification of seed plant biomass allocation strategies.
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              Invariant scaling relations across tree-dominated communities.

              Organizing principles are needed to link organismal, community and ecosystem attributes across spatial and temporal scales. Here we extend allometric theory-how attributes of organisms change with variation in their size-and test its predictions against worldwide data sets for forest communities by quantifying the relationships among tree size-frequency distributions, standing biomass, species number and number of individuals per unit area. As predicted, except for the highest latitudes, the number of individuals scales as the -2 power of basal stem diameter or as the -3/4 power of above-ground biomass. Also as predicted, this scaling relationship varies little with species diversity, total standing biomass, latitude and geographic sampling area. A simulation model in which individuals allocate biomass to leaf, stem and reproduction, and compete for space and light obtains features identical to those of a community. In tandem with allometric theory, our results indicate that many macroecological features of communities may emerge from a few allometric principles operating at the level of the individual.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                1932-6203
                2014
                22 January 2014
                : 9
                : 1
                : e86550
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Biological Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America
                [2 ]Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
                Beijing Forestry University, China
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: Dafeng Hui is Academic Editor for PLoS One. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: DH HR WS. Analyzed the data: DH JW XL. Wrote the paper: DH HR PG.

                Article
                PONE-D-13-18345
                10.1371/journal.pone.0086550
                3899269
                ef198b21-df4d-4be4-ad4c-93ec73a4f498
                Copyright @ 2014

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 26 September 2013
                : 12 December 2013
                Page count
                Pages: 13
                Funding
                This work was supported by the “Strategic Priority Research Program” (No. XDA05050206) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation, USA. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Agriculture
                Agricultural Production
                Environmental Impacts
                Forestry
                Biology
                Ecology
                Ecological Metrics
                Biomass (Ecology)
                Plant Ecology
                Plant-Environment Interactions
                Biota
                Terrestrial Ecology
                Plant Science
                Plant Ecology
                Plant-Environment Interactions

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

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