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Effects of forest fire on carbon density of Eucalyptus robusta forest ecosystem in Guangdong Province.

HU Hai-qing1, LUO Si-sheng1, LUO Bi-zhen1*, WEI Shu-jing2, WANG Zhen-shi2   

  1. (1College of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China; 2Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Protection and Utilization/Guangdong Academy of Forestry, Guangzhou 510520, China).
  • Published:2020-04-10

Abstract: As a non-continuous ecological factor, forest fire affects carbon pool and carbon distribution in forest ecosystems, and alters forest succession and carbon sequestration capacity. In this study, the burned sites ofEucalyptus robusta forests with different fire intensities were selected as the research object. A comparison method of adjacent plots was used in combination with field sampling and laboratory analysis, to investigate the effects of different forest fire intensities on the variation and spatial distribution patterns of carbon density of different ecosystem components in forest ecosystems. We found that forest fire reduced vegetation carbon density (P<0.05). Carbon density of vegetation in the plots with light, moderate and high fire intensities was 67.88, 35.68 and 15.50 t·hm-2, with a decrease of 15.86%, 55.78% and 80.79% compared to that of the control, respectively. After interference of light, moderate and high forest fire intensities, carbon density of litter was 1.43, 0.94 and 0.81 t·hm-2, respectively, with a reduction of 28.14%, 52.76% and 59.30%, respectively. Soil organic carbon density in forests with different forest fire intensities was lower than that of the control, and the reduction amplitude gradually became smaller with increasing soil depth. Soil organic carbon density of E. robusta forests was 103.30, 84.33 and 70.04 t·hm-2, respectively, which decreased by 11.67%, 27.89% and 40.11%, respectively. In forests with light, moderate and high forest fire intensities, ecosystem carbon density was 172.61, 120.95 and 86.35 t·hm-2, respectively, which decreased by 13.53%, 39.41% and 56.74%, respectively. In summary, forest fire disturbance reduced carbon density of E. robusta forests, which decreased with increasing forest fire intensity. Compared with the control, lightintensity forest fire interference had no significant effect on ecosystem carbon density (P>0.05), while moderateand highintensity forest fire interference had a significant effect on ecosystem carbon density (P<0.05).