Effect of Climatic Factors on Stem Biomass and Carbon Stock of Larix gmelinii and Betula platyphylla in Daxing’anling Mountain of Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

Climate change has become a global concern for scientists as it is affecting almost every ecosystem. Larix gmelinii and Betula platyphylla are native and dominant forest species in the Daxing’anling Mountains of Inner Mongolia, playing a major role in carbon sequestration of this region. This study was carried out to assess the effect of climate variables including precipitation and temperature on the biomass of Larix gmelinii and Betula platyphylla forests. For this purpose, we used the climate-sensitive stem biomass allometric model for both species separately to find out accurate stem biomass along with climatic factors from 1950 to 2016. A total of 66 random plots were taken to attain the data from this study area. Larix gmelinii and Betula platyphylla stem biomass have a strong correlation with annual precipitation (R2 = 0.86, R2 = 0.71, R2 = 0.79, and R2 = 0.59) and maximum temperature (R2 = 0.76, R2 = 0.64, R2 = 0.67, and R2 = 0.52). However, annual minimum temperature (R2 = 0.58, R2 = 0.43, R2 = 0.55, and R2 = 0.46) and annual mean temperature (R2 = 0.40, R2 = 0.22, R2 = 0.36, and R2 = 0.19) have a relatively negative impact on tree biomass. Therefore, we suggest that both species have a very strong adaptive nature with climatic variation and hence can survive under drought and high-temperature stress climatic conditions.