ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1663271
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing Woody Plant Growth and Resilience Through Nature-Based SolutionsView all 12 articles
Factors Influencing Net Ecosystem Carbon Change in Cold-Temperate Coniferous Forests of the Da Xing'an Mountains: Analysis Across Developmental Stages Based on Stand, Structural, and Environmental Factors
Provisionally accepted
- Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
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The Da Xing'an Mountains region is the only area of cold–temperate coniferous forests in China and functions as an essential ecological barrier. It has a crucial purpose in forest ecosystems and carbon sequestration processes. Stand age is influenced by interactions among population dynamics, mechanisms of disturbance, and forest management approaches, significantly influencing the global carbon cycle. Growth data indicate that forest development is correlated with variations in productivity. Nonetheless, the variability in production throughout several phases of stand development remains largely unexamined, and the influence of contributing elements in this process is still ambiguous. Utilizing the 2005–2010 National Forest Continuous Inventory (NFCI) data from the eastern Da Xing'an Mountains, we examined the influence of stand characteristics, structural diversity, and environmental variables on forest productivity throughout various developmental stages, from young to overaged forests. The findings indicate that (1) forest productivity is collectively limited by stand characteristics, structural diversity, and environmental factors, with stand factors exerting the greatest influence, especially through direct effects. (2) As tree growth stages advance, the impacts of structural variety (ranging from 8.68 to 16.44) and soil (ranging from 8.80 to 10.30) on forest productivity intensify. (3) Altered tree growth stages decrease the influence of climate (from 30.40 to 17.67) and terrain (from 14.55 to 6.28) on forest productivity. By thoroughly integrating the determinants of forest production, our study provides essential system–level insights that establish a theoretical basis for forecasting alterations in forest productivity amid global change. These findings enhance the formulation of more efficacious forest management methods to address the difficulties posed by climate change and biodiversity decline.
Keywords: Net Ecosystem Carbon, environmental factors, Stand age, Naturalforests, The Da Xing'an Mountains
Received: 10 Jul 2025; Accepted: 17 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Dong, Hao, Miao, Jin, Zhao and Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lihu Dong, lihudong@nefu.edu.cn
Yuanshuo Hao, haoyuanshuo@nefu.edu.cn
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