Topography and life stage regulate species aboveground biomass distribution in combination in a tropical montane rainforest

Understanding the correlation between topography, species biomass and species life stage would allow forest managers to better foster carbon storage in forests. Using census data from a 60-ha plot in south China, we first quantified aboveground biomass (AGB) and how much it varied among different topographies. Next, the specific contribution of 42 dominant species to total aboveground biomass was analyzed for each of the different topographies. We also explored whether these species-topography associations changed, in terms of species’ AGB distribution, during each of the three life stages (sapling, juvenile, adult) for these 42 species. Our results showed that the average AGB was 368.79 Mg ha-1 and that it varied noticeably among the four topographies (Low valley, Slope, High valley and Ridge, which were classified by using fuzzy C-mean clustering based on elevation, convexity, and slope). AGB was significantly lower in the two valleys than in the two other topographies. Of the 42 species, 88.1% showed topographic preferences, and 78.6% appeared to exhibit topographic preferences that changed with life stage. Our work highlights the importance of topography and life stage in species biomass distribution and suggests that different combinations of species and life stages, based on species topographic preferences across life stages, may be better suited in different tropical rainforest topographies to maximize carbon storage overall.