Vegetation Carbon Storage, Spatial Patterns and Response to Altitude in Lancang River Basin, Southwest China

Long Chen, Changshun Zhang, Gaodi Xie, Chunlan Liu, Haihua Wang, Zheng Li, Sha Pei and Qing Qiao
Additional contact information
Long Chen: Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, National Engineering Research Center for Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing 100037, China
Changshun Zhang: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Gaodi Xie: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Chunlan Liu: Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, National Engineering Research Center for Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing 100037, China
Haihua Wang: Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, National Engineering Research Center for Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing 100037, China
Zheng Li: Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, National Engineering Research Center for Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing 100037, China
Sha Pei: Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, National Engineering Research Center for Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing 100037, China
Qing Qiao: Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, National Engineering Research Center for Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing 100037, China

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Vegetation plays a very important role of carbon (C) sinks in the global C cycle. With its complex terrain and diverse vegetation types, the Lancang River Basin (LRB) of southwest China has huge C storage capacity. Therefore, understanding the spatial variations and controlling mechanisms of vegetation C storage is important to understand the regional C cycle. In this study, data from a forest inventory and field plots were used to estimate and map vegetation C storage distribution in the LRB, to qualify the quantitative relationships between vegetation C density and altitude at sublot and township scale, and a linear model or polynomial model was used to identify the relationship between C density and altitude at two spatial scales and two statistical scales. The results showed that a total of 300.32 Tg C was stored in the LRB, an important C sink in China. The majority of C storage was contributed by forests, notably oaks. The vegetation C storage exhibited nonlinear variation with latitudinal gradients. Altitude had tremendous influences on spatial patterns of vegetation C storage of three geomorphological types in the LRB. C storage decreased with increasing altitude at both town and sublot scales in the flat river valley (FRV) region and the mid-low mountains gorge (MMG) region, and first increased then decreased in the alpine gorge (AG) region. This revealed that, in southwest China, altitude changes the latitudinal patterns of vegetation C storage; especially in the AG area, C density in the mid-altitude (3100 m) area was higher than that of adjacent areas.

Keywords: carbon storage; latitude; altitude; slope; Lancang River Basin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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