Forest biomass characteristics and influencing factors in different restoration stages in the Daxing’anling forest region of Inner Mongolia, northern China

ObjectiveTo study the succession process of degraded forest ecosystems recovered from the interference of fire and logging in the Inner Mongolia Daxing’anling forest area of northern China, a general stand biomass model was established to analyze the forest biomass characteristics and figure out the effects of stand, topography and climate factors on stand biomass.

MethodBiomass was calculated from the published biomass equations based on corresponding diameter at breast (DBH) and tree height (H) measured in the field. Variance analysis was used to determine the significance of stand, topographic and climatic factors, restoration time and interference type to the stand biomass. General linear model method was used to establish multivariate linear model of stand forest biomass and the forest biomass characteristics of degraded forest ecosystem were compared among different habitats.

Result(1) The forest biomass in different recovery stages of forest ecosystems was significantly different. The forest biomass organic allocation was also significantly different in a way that the maximum proportion of biomass mostly occurred in 4−8 cm, 14 cm and 18−26 cm diameter class. (2) Variance analysis showed that restoration time, interference type, dominant tree species and altitude had significant effects on stand biomass, while the two main climatic factors and climatic factors had no effect on stand biomass. The coefficient of determination for two stand biomass models was above 0.85 and could be used to predict forest biomass in degraded forest ecosystem.

ConclusionThere are large differences in forest biomass in varied degraded stages of forest ecosystems. The forest biomass organic and diameter allocation are affected by interference type and restoration time. The stand biomass is proportional to restoration time and altitude. The interference type and forest type will affect the stand biomass. The research results can provide reference for forest biomass prediction and forest carbon pool research in Daxing’anling forest area.