[Carbon storage of poplar-crop ecosystem in Eastern Henan Plain]

Aimed to understand the carbon storage of poplar-crop ecosystem in Eastern Henan Plain, the poplar-crop ecosystems with different ages (5, 9, 11, and 13 years old) of poplar were selected, and each of them was further divided into four subsystems, i. e. , forest, crop, litterfall, and soil. In the poplar-crop ecosystems with 5, 9, 11, and 13 years old poplar, the carbon storage of the subsystems forest and litterfall was summed as 7.86, 42.07, 44.31, and 60.71 t x hm(-2), respectively. Subsystem crop averagely sequestrated 6. 8 t x hm(-2) of CO2 per year, and the carbon storage of subsystem soil achieved 45.55, 51.06, 55.94, and 60.49 t x hm(-2), respectively. The total carbon storage of these four poplar-crop ecosystems reached 60.81, 100.09, 106.76, and 127.34 t x hm(-2), respectively, much higher than that in mono-cultured farmland (49.36 t x hm(-2)). For the test poplar-crop ecosystems, the carbon storage of subsystems forest and soil occupied a large proportion, accounting for 87.1%-93.1% of the total carbon storage, while that of subsystems crop and litterfall occupied a relatively small proportion, being 6.9%-12.9% of the total, illustrating that agroforestry ecosystem had a high potential in carbon absorption and sequestration.