Pifeng Lei

Central South University of Forestry and Technology

Litter of different species coexists in the natural ecosystem and may induce non-additive effects during decomposition. Identifying and quantifying the origins of species in litter mixtures is essential for evaluating the responses of each component species when mixed with co-occurring species and then unraveling the underlying mechanism of the mix...

The cycling dynamics and supply–demand balance of nutrients can provide useful information for improving the management of tree plantations and maintaining their long-term productivity. Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for plant growth; however, its cycling characteristics and availability in soils along different stand developmental stages...

Thinning is a widely-used management practice to reduce tree competition and improve wood production and quality in forest plantations. Thinning affects the soil ecosystem by changing the microclimate and plant growth, as well as litter inputs above and belowground, with all the resulting consequences for microbial communities and functions. Althou...

Tree species diversity is assumed to be an important component in managing forest ecosystems because of effects on multiple functions or ecosystem multifunctionality. However, the importance of tree diversity in determining multifunctionality in structurally complex subtropical forests relative to other regulators (e.g., soil microbial diversity, s...

Shrubbery and young plantations, with a large number of tree species, take up a broad area in subtropical Chinese forests and contribute a significant part to forest biomass and carbon (C) stocks. However, the biomass and C stocks of shrubbery and young plantations were generally underestimated or excluded in forest biomass calculations due to the...

Understanding stomatal regulatory mechanisms across various woody species is helpful for explaining their adaptations to diverse environmental conditions. Stomatal opening and closing are driven by the requirements for maintaining water transport integrity and carbon uptake; however, distinguishing which factor plays a dominant role in the regulati...

Nitrogen (N) is an essential element for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and is often the primary limiting resource for the productivity of many terrestrial ecosystems. Existing knowledge on the effect of vegetation restoration on soil N dynamics is inconsistent. The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamics of soil N contents and...

The process of rapid urbanization in China has led to various impacts on the urban ecological environment and one of these significant effects is the urban heat island (UHI). Pursuing the construction of a ecological city is recognized as an important direction to relieve the contradictions between environmental protection and city development. Yet...

Trees and their associated arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi drive carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling patterns. However, the mechanisms underpinning this relationship and the degree to which mycorrhiza mediate the effects of forest tree composition on soil N cycling outside of the temperate zone remain unclear. Here, we c...

Afforestation is an effective method to increase carbon (C) sinks and address climate change. It is crucial to understand how the stand growth affects C sequestration capacity, especially when the trade-offs with timber production from plantations have not been fully examined. We used a chronosequence approach to estimate C storage in Chinese fir (...

Background Forest ecosystems play an important role in carbon sequestration, climate change mitigation, and achieving China's target to become carbon (C) neutral by 2060. However, changes in C storage and net primary production (NPP) in natural secondary forests stemming from tree growth and future climate change have not yet been investigated in s...

Dear Colleagues, Due to global changes and losses in biodiversity, the study of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function has attracted a large amount of attention. Forests, as globally important terrestrial ecosystems, not only provide humans with multiple functions and services including timber production, carbon storage, wate...

Canopy interception loss is an important hydrological process that affects rainfall redistribution, nutrient cycling, and soil and water conservation in forest ecosystems. However, the manner in which interception loss is affected in forests that are in restoration stages dominated by different tree species has not been fully understood. In this st...

Drought events lead to depressions in gross primary productivity (GPP) of forest ecosystems. Photosynthetic and hydraulic traits are important factors governing GPP variation. However, how these functional traits affect GPP responses to drought has not been well understood. We quantified the capacity of GPP to withstand changes during droughts (GPP...

Background Forest ecosystems play an important role in carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation, as well as achieving target for carbon neutrality in 2060 proposed by the Chinese government. However, changes in carbon storage and net primary production in natural secondary forests stemming from tree growth and future climate change have n...

Although phosphorus (P) is a limiting nutrient for plant growth in subtropical forests, the effects of forest succession on soil P dynamics, which in turn influences P availability, are unclear. The objective was to access the impacts of forest succession on P fractions of different availability (Hedley sequential fractionation) in highly weathered...

The majority of studies have found that an increase in tree species diversity can increase the productivity of forest stands thanks to complimentary effects with enhanced resource use efficiency or selection effects; however, it is unclear how tree species diversity affects the soil fungal community and enzyme activities in subtropical evergreen fo...

The mechanism whereby tree species richness and identity affect the production of fine roots (≤ 2 mm) in forests remains controversial. Complementarity effects (via resource partitioning and facilitation, CEs) and selection effects (that is, dominant of species with particular traits, SEs) are the two hypotheses to explain biodiversity effects on e...

Although stand age affects biomass partitioning and allometric equations, the size of these effects and whether it is worth incorporating stand age into allometric equations, requires further attention. We sampled a total of 90 trees for 10 Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) plantations at seven stand age classes to obtain the data of tree compo...

Aim Tree species diversity can increase the stability of ecosystem productivity by increasing mean productivity and/or reducing the standard deviation in productivity. However, stand structure, environmental and socio‐economic conditions influence plant diversity and might strongly influence the relationships between diversity and stability in natu...

Soil nitrogen (N) is frequently limiting forest productivity, especially in plantations. To investigate the soil N dynamics and the consequences of N accumulation as well as the losses in the ecosystem, we studied a chronosequence of Chinese-fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata [Lamb.] Hook) plantations with stands aged 3, 16, 25, 32, and >80 years. Total...

Predicting changes in carbon and nutrient cycles in plantations requires a mechanistic understanding of the effects of stand age on soil quality and microbial communities. Here, we evaluated soil quality by using an integrated soil quality index (SQI) and traced the parallel shifts in fungal community composition using high‐throughput sequencing in...

The study was to investigate the change patterns of soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and soil C/N (C/N) in each soil sublayer along vegetation restoration in subtropical China. We collected soil samples in four typical plant communities along a restoration chronosequence. The soil physicochemical properties, fine root, and litter bio...

Phosphorus (P) is a limiting nutrient for plant growth in most forest ecosystems. In response to P deficiency, plants alter root exudates (organic acids, phosphatases, and protons) to increase P bioavailability in soils. However, little is known about how bioavailable P pools (soluble-P, exchangeable-P, hydrolysable-P, and ligand-P extracted by CaC...

Background Soil and vegetation have a direct impact on the process and direction of plant community succession, and determine the structure, function, and productivity of ecosystems. However, little is known about the synergistic influence of soil physicochemical properties and vegetation features on vegetation restoration. The aim of this study wa...

In the restoration of subtropical forests, the hydrological fluxes of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) have not been fully investigated in different stages dominated by different tree species. The concentrations of DOC and TDN in rainfall, throughfall, stemflow, and surface runoff were measured for two years in each...

Nutrient resorption is a key nutrient-use strategy exhibited by perennial plants to overcome nutrient limitations and meet their nutritional demands. However, the factors that drive nutrient resorption with stand development remain largely unknown. In this study, we examined how a nutrient source (soil) and sink (trees) affected the resorption effi...

Aims There is evidence that different facets of biodiversity such as species richness (SR), phylogenetic diversity (PD) and functional diversity (FD) can modulate ecosystem functioning via niche-complementarity or mass-ratio effects, but the support for these hypotheses on fine root biomass remains unclear. Methods In a tree diversity gradient in...

Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook) is the most commonly grown afforestation species in subtropical China. It is essential that we understand the response of radial tree growth to climate factors, yet most experiments have been conducted based on total annual growth and not on monthly dynamics, which alone can detail the influence of...

Subtropical broadleaved forests play a crucial role in supporting terrestrial ecosystem functions, but little is known about their belowground soil fungal communities despite that they have central functions in C, N, and P cycles. This study investigated the structures and identified the drivers of soil fungal communities in subtropical deciduous a...

Vegetation restoration affects the stability of soil organic carbon (SOC) by changing the composition of soil carbon pools, including active carbon (Ca), the labile pool of SOC; slow carbon (Cs), the physically stabilized pool of SOC; and resistant carbon (Cr), the chemically stabilized pool of SOC. The aims of this study were to determine how SOC...

Increased availability of soil phosphorus (P) has recently been recognised as an underlying driving factor for the positive relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem function. The effects of plant diversity on the bioavailable forms of P involved in biologically mediated rhizospheric processes and how the link between plant and soil microb...

Forest productivity may be determined not only by biodiversity but also by environmental factors and stand structure attributes. However, the relative importance of these factors in determining productivity is still controversial for subtropical forests. Based on a large dataset from 600 permanent forest inventory plots across subtropical China, we...

Aims The phylogenetic variations of fine root traits, which are related to plant growth and development as well as to physiological and ecological processes, are not fully understood. This study aimed to: (1) examine how tree species and sampling methodology affect the anatomical, morphological and nutrient traits of fine roots; and (2) determine w...

Despite the great importance of fine roots, which are referred to as roots smaller than 2 mm in diameter, in terms of carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, how fine root biomass, production, and turnover rate change with stand development remains poorly understood. Here we assessed the variations of fine root biomass, production, a...

Despite the accumulating evidence of the beneficial effects of diverse mixed species forests on ecosystem functioning and services, foresters in subtropical forest cultivation in China still prefer easily managed monocultures, which is also due to the complexity of mixed forests and the unknown underlying mechanisms related to relationships between...

Forest restoration affects nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the dynamics of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorous (P), and their stoichiometry (C:N:P ratio) in the soil during forest restoration are poorly understood in subtropical areas. In the current study, we collected soil samples at three depths (0–10, 10–20, and 20–30...

Rocky desertification is a major ecological problem of land degradation in karst areas. In these areas, the high soil calcium (Ca) content has become an important environmental factor that can affect the restoration of vegetation. Consequently, the screening of plant species that can adapt to high Ca soil environments is a critical step in vegetati...

Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook) is an important native tree species that is widely distributed in subtropical areas of southern China and cultivated for wood extraction. However, information on water use by Chinese fir plantations is still scarce. In this study, we performed species-specific parameter calibrations for the origina...

Background Mixed forests are believed to enhance ecosystem functioning and sustainability due to complementary resource use, environmental benefits and improved soil properties. The facilitation between different species may induce overyielding. Meanwhile, the species-specific fine root foraging strategies and tradeoffs would determine the structur...

Rocky desertification is a major ecological problem of land degradation in karst areas. Its high soil calcium (Ca²⁺) content has become an important environmental factor which can affect the restoration of vegetation in such rocky desertification areas. Consequently, the screening of plant species, which can adapt to soils high Ca²⁺ environment, is...

Background and aims Direct measurement of fine root diversity is very important to unveil belowground interaction, community dynamics and ecosystem functions in forests, but is limited by the effective method. This study attempted to develop specific primers for a quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) method to determine diversity of fine roots and tes...

Floristic composition changes during forest succession influence nutrient cycling. However, variation patterns of soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorous (P), and soil stoichiometry (C : N, C : P, and N : P ratios) along forest succession are controversial. In this study, soil samples were collected at depths of 0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm in...

With the increasing trend of converting monocultures into mixed forests, more and more studies have been carried out to investigate the admixing effects on tree growth and aboveground carbon storage. However, few studies have considered the impact of mixed forests on belowground carbon sequestration, particularly changes in soil carbon and nitrogen...

Forests contain one of the world’s largest carbon (C) pools and represent opportunities for cost-effective climate change mitigation through programmes such as the United Nations-led “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” Programme (REDD). Generic estimates for the conversion of forest biomass into C stock are not sufficient...

Wood density (WD) is not only an important parameter to estimate aboveground biomass but also an indicator of timber quality and plant adaptation strategies to stressful conditions (i.e., windthrow, pests, and pathogens). This study had three objectives: (1) to compare WD among seven subtropical tree species; (2) to determine how tree growth traits...

Coarse root biomass (CRB) is an important store of carbon (C) and forest residue for renewable energy, but is often overlooked due to the lack of a simple and effective way to estimate its magnitude. In this study, we developed allometric equations for three functional groups using data from 133 tree samples, with a diameter at breast height (DBH)...

With the increasing trend of converting monocultures into mixed forests, more and more studies were carried out to investigate the admixing effects on the tree growth and aboveground carbon storage. However, few studies have considered the impact of mixed forests on the belowground carbon sequestration, and changes of soil carbon and nitrogen stock...

Aims Our study aimed to determine whether, and to what extent, stand characteristics and topography affected spatial variations in soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations in subtropical forests. Methods Soil samples were taken from a Choerospondias glaber–Cyclobalanopsis glauca evergreen broadleaved f...

Chinese subtropical forests contain a diversity of tree species and exhibit a high carbon (C) sequestration capacity, but biomass and C stock assessments in subtropical secondary forests remain uncertain because of a limited availability of allometric equations and an uncertain applicability of existing allometric equations that have not been teste...

Leaf area index (LAI) is an important parameter related to carbon, water, and energy exchange between canopy and atmosphere and is widely applied in process models that simulate production and hydrological cycles in forest ecosystems. However, fine-scale spatial heterogeneity of LAI and its controlling factors have yet to be fully understood in Chi...

Fine roots ( ≤ 2 mm diameter) are of great value when investigating belowground interactions among different plant species and soil nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. However, fine root separation and species identification are labor-intensive and time-consuming processes. This study aimed to evaluate the aptitude of near-infrared reflectance s...

In order to investigate spatial variations in soil phosphorus (P) concentration and the influencing factors, one permanent plot of 1 hm2 was established and stand structure was surveyed in Choerospondias axillaries deciduous broadleaved forest in Dashanchong Forest Park in Changsha County, Hunan Province, China. Soil samples were collected with equ...

Distribution and dynamics of carbon storage and carbon density were examined in forest vegetation in Hunan Province of China, based on four forest inventories during 1983—2009 (1983—1987, 1990—1995, 2003—2004, and 2009). Inventory data consisted of biomass expansion factors and carbon concentration of existing forest types in this region. The resul...

Background and aims Belowground interactions can greatly modify fine root (≤2 mm in diameter) traits to increase soil resource acquisition for tree growth. We examined how mixed forests alter fine root traits compared to pure forests. Methods A pseudo-experimental tree cluster design was used to select small-area plots of single and mixed species i...

Understanding of belowground interactions among tree species and the fine root (≤2 mm in diameter) contribution of a species to forest ecosystem production are mostly restricted by experimental difficulties in the quantification of the species composition. The available approaches have various defects. By contrast, DNA-based methods can avoid these...

Tree diameter at breast height (dbh) and height are the most important variables used in forest inventory and management as well as forest carbon-stock estimation. In order to identify the key stand variables that influence the tree height-dbh relationship and to develop and validate a suit of models for predicting tree height, data from 5961 tree...

Evergreen broadleaved forests in subtropical China contain a complicated structure of diverse species. The impact of topographic and soil factors on the assembly of woody species in the forest has been poorly understood. We used Ripley’s K(t) function to analyze the spatial patterns and associations of dominant species and residual analysis (RDA) t...

The planting of trees on mine wastelands is an effective, long-term technique for phytoremediation of heavy metal-contaminated wastes. In this study, a pot experiment with seedlings of Koelreuteria paniculata under six treatments of local mine wastes was designed to determine the major constraints on tree establishment and to evaluate the feasibili...

Fine roots ( ≤ 2 mm diameter) are of great value when investigating belowground interactions among different plant species and soil nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. However, fine root separation and species identification are labor-intensive and time-consuming processes. This study aimed to evaluate the aptitude of near-infrared reflectance s...

Context Reliable estimates of wood density (WD) within individual trees could maximize the value of Pinus massoniana for specific end-use. Aim We examined and quantified the axial patterns of WD in trees with different social status in the stands. Methods Wood disks were sampled at the bottom, breast height, and middle of each 1-m sections from 108...

Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for growth and development of plants. At cellular and sub-cellular levels, P plays a vital role in various important metabolic processes, such as protein synthesis, cell division, newborn tissues development and energy transformations. In terrestrial ecosystems, P is often the most limiting nutrient. This is p...

Background and aims The influences of succession and species diversity on fine root production are not well known in forests. This study aimed to investigate: (i) whether fine root biomass and production increased with successional stage and increasing tree species diversity; (ii) how forest type affected seasonal variation and regrowth of fine roo...

Basic density is a key variable with which to express wood properties, but little attention has been paid to basic density traits in determining stem biomass. A total of 108 Pinus massoniana L. trees were selected from six sites in Hunan Province, China. Cross-sectional discs were cut for analysis using the stem analysis method. Results showed that...

Background: Root decomposition is an important process that contributes to forest ecosystem carbon (C) flux and nutrient cycling.Aims: To determine how tree species affected fine root (≤2 mm) decomposition rates and nitrogen (N) release.Methods: Fine root samples of the coniferous Pinus massoniana, the deciduous Choerospondias axillaris, and the br...

The phenomenon of overyielding in species-diverse plant communities is mainly attributed to complementary resource use. Vertical niche differentiation belowground might be one potential mechanism for such complementarity. However, most studies that have analysed the diversity/productivity relationship and belowground niche differentiation have done...

Belowground interactions in diverse plant communities may be decisive for the performance of individual species and community stability. Here we assessed the effect of tree species richness on belowground fine-root morphology and belowground competition between four different species in a 6-year-old field biodiversity experiment to test the hypothe...

Assessment of belowground interactions in mixed forests has been largely constrained by the ability to distinguish fine roots of different species. Here, we explored near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict the proportion of woody fine roots in mixed samples and analyzed whether the prediction quality of NIRS models is related to th...

The concentrations of 9 nutrient elements (N,P,K,Ca,Mg,Cu,Zn,Mn,SiO2) in stem-flow, and rainfall were measured in 22-25 years old Cinnamomum camphora, Pinus taeda, Quercus aliena, Michelia macclurei from April of 2003 to July of 2004 at Zhuzhou. The results showed:the concentrations of the nutrients in rainfall varied according to the month; The co...