The relative contributions of forest growth and areal expansion to forest biomass carbon sinks in China.

Forests play a leading role in regional and global terrestrial carbon (C) cycles. Changes in C sequestration within forests can be attributed to areal expansion (increase in forest area) and forest growth (increase in biomass density). Detailed assessment of the relative contributions of areal expansion and forest growth to C sinks is crucial to reveal the mechanisms that control forest C sinks and is helpful for developing sustainable forest management policies in the face of climate change. Using the Forest Identity concept and forest inventory data, this study quantified the spatial and temporal changes in the relative contributions of forest areal expansion and increased biomass growth to China's forest C sinks from 1977 to 2008. Over the last 30 years, the areal expansion of forests was a larger contributor to C sinks than forest growth for all forests and planted forests in China (74.6 vs. 25.4% for all forests, and 62.4 vs. 37.8% for plantations). However, for natural forests, forest growth made a larger contribution than areal expansion (60.4 vs. 39.6%). The relative contribution of forest growth of planted forests showed an increasing trend from an initial 25.3 to 61.0% in the later period of 1998 to 2003, but for natural forests, the relative contributions were variable without clear trends owing to the drastic changes in forest area and biomass density over the last 30 years. Our findings suggest that afforestation can continue to increase the C sink of China's forests in the future subject to persistently-increasing forest growth after establishment of plantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]