Stand structural diversity rather than species diversity enhances
aboveground carbon storage in secondary subtropical forests in Eastern China

Ali, Arshad; Yan, En-Rong; Chen, Han Y. H.; Chang, Scott X.; Zhao, Yan-Tao; Yang, Xiao-Dong; Xu, Ming-Shan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4627-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4627-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4627-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 16

Research article

|

17 Aug 2016

Research article |

| 17 Aug 2016

Stand structural diversity rather than species diversity enhances aboveground carbon storage in secondary subtropical forests in Eastern China

Arshad Ali, En-Rong Yan, Han Y. H. Chen, Scott X. Chang, Yan-Tao Zhao, Xiao-Dong Yang, and Ming-Shan Xu

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4627-2016-supplement

Data sets

Dryad Digital Repository A. Ali, E.-R. Yan, H. Y. H. Chen, X. S. Chang, Y.-T. Zhao, X.-D. Yang, and M. S. Xu http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8bp7m

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Short summary

Stand age demonstrated strong positive total effects, including a positive direct effect (β = 0.41), and a positive indirect effect via stand structural diversity (β = 0.41) on aboveground carbon (C) storage. Stand structural diversity had a positive direct effect on aboveground C storage (β = 0.56), whereas there was little total effect of species diversity as it had a negative direct association with, but had a positive indirect effect, via stand structural diversity, on aboveground C storage.