Effects of productivity and soil carbon storage in mixed forests

Abstract

Forest ecosystem stored carbon in vegetation and soil, but its quantitative values depend on soil, vegetation type, climate (rainfall and temperature), and stages of soil aggregation process. Soil organic carbon (SOC), a key component of the global C pool, plays an important role in C cycling, regulating climate, water supplies, and biodiversity, and therefore in providing the ecosystem services that are essential to human being. The global soil carbon (C) pool amounts to 2500 Gt, whereas the biotic pool is only 560 Gt. Most agricultural soils in temperate regions have lost as much as 60% of SOC and as much as 75% in tropical regions, mainly due to conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural uses. On a global scale, C loss from soils is mainly associated with soil degradation, including accelerated erosion and mineralization, and land-use change and has amounted to 78 ± 12 Gt since 1850. Review of work revealed that carbon sequestration is the highest in the short-rotation young forest of fast-growing hardwood tree species with regular leaf shedding pattern in humid condition. Enhancing carbon sequestration in terrestrial pool could have direct environmental, economic, and social benefits for people thereby mitigating the effect of global climate change. Mechanisms of protection and dynamics of SOC in mixed forest soil, factors affecting carbon storage in mixed forest plantation, potential of carbon storage in different forest types, determination of carbon storage in different trees, and a case study of subtropical mixed forest have been focused in this chapter. Mixed forest management practices that sequester carbon and increase productivity has also been discussed, besides new areas of research to mitigate the impact on changing climate and global environment.