Yi Sun;Yao Ma;Kun‐Fang Cao;Hongmei Li;Jinxiang Shen;Wenjun Liu;Liang Dian-nong;Cencen Me

Yunnan Land and Resources Vocational College, Kunming 650217 (China);Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun 666303 (China); Yunnan College of Business Management, Kunming 650106 (China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094 (China);State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, and College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004 (China); Yunnan College of Business Management, Kunming 650106 (China)

rubber plantations;ha;ecosystem;rubber;xishuangbanna;c stoc

Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations have been expanded rapidly in tropical regions of Southwest China and cover more than 20% of land area in Xishuangbanna Several studies have addressed changes of soil C stocks in rubber plantations; however, estimates of total ecosystem C stocks and their temporal changes in rubber plantations have been inadequately studied. This study calculated C stocks in soil, biomass, litter, and dry rubber (latex), and estimated the total ecosystem C stocks of rubber plantations in an age sequence of 3-, 7-, 9-, 21-, 27-, and 34-year-old in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. The total C stocks in rubber plantations ranged from 150.3 to 283.7 Mg C ha(-1), with a mean of 213.4 Mg C ha(-1). The plantations < 9-year-old had significantly lower (P < 0.05) total C stocks than those older than 9 years. Carbon stocks in soil (mass equivalent) were between 107.1-170.5 Mg C hal-and in living biomass were between 2.8-95.7 Mg C ha(-1), representing the largest and the second largest C components in a rubber plantation ecosystem. Neglect of dry rubber C stock resulted in an underestimate of 7.8%-14.2% of the total C stock in the rubber plantations older than 9 years, which was much larger than the contribution of litter C stock (less than 2%).