Estimation methods in predicting carbon stock of forest communities in the natural reserve of Baihua mountain

ZHOU Zhi-yong1,WANG Xiang-ping1,ZHENG Jing-ming1,LIU Xiao-dong1,LI Jun-qing1,SONG Meng-qing2(1 Key Laboratory for Silviculture and Conservation of Ministry of Education,Beijing Forestry University,Beijing 100083,China; 2 National Natural Reserve of Baihua Mountain,Beijing 102311,China)

the natural reserve of Baihua mountain;forest community volume;forest stock;estimation methods of carbon stock;variation analysis

【Objective】 This study probed into the feasibility of calculating carbon stock of small-scale forest communities using biomass expansion factor,biomass estimation from forest communities volume,and biomass estimation from wood concentration and determined the critical parameters controlling the carbon stock.【Method】 Single entry volume table method and averaged experimental form factor method were used to calculate the volumes of coniferous plantation and secondary broadleaf forest based on field data.Then the carbon stocks were estimated using biomass expansion factor method,biomass estimation from forest volume method and biomass estimation from wood concentration method based on each forest community.【Result】 In the natural reserve of Baihua mountain,the volumes calculated by single entry volume table method and averaged experimental form factor method ranged from 148.78 to 169.98 m3/hm2 for coniferous plantation and from 106.82 to 120.30 m3/hm2 for regenerated broadleaf forest.The average carbon storages of coniferous plantation were from 71.58 to 80.50 t/hm2,while that of secondary broadleaf forest were from 49.74 to 55.19 t/hm2.Additionally,the carbon storages of coniferous community calculated by biomass expansion factor method and biomass calculation from wood concentration method were significantly higher than the results of biomass calculation from forest stand volume method,and the differences were up to 14.81%(single entry volume table method)and 16.68%(averaged experimental form factor method).Although no difference was detected among the estimated carbon storages for secondary broadleaf forest,the differences were about 5.65%(single entry volume table method)and 6.40%(averaged experimental form factor method).【Conclusion】 It was proved that these three methods can be used to estimate the carbon stock at the forest community scale,and the estimated values would not be influenced by volume calculation methods.Height,diameter at breast height(DBH)and basal area are the key factors that affect the calculated carbon storages.