Frequency maps of annual rates of change in area (<i>a</i>) (A) and volume density (<i>d</i>) (B) for China's forests over the past three decades.

<p>Frequency maps of annual rates of change in area (<i>a</i>) (A) and volume density (<i>d</i>) (B) for China's forests over the past three decades.</p

A synoptic chart showing the changes in China's forests over the past three decades.

<p>On the chart, the horizontal axis is the relative annual change of forest area (<i>a</i>), and the vertical axis is the relative annual change of forest volume density (<i>d</i>). The growing stock (<i>v</i>) was increasing in the provinces above the diagonal line <i>a = −d.</i></p

Relationship between relative annual changes in the conversion ratio of biomass to growing stock (<i>b</i>) and in the growing stock density (<i>d</i>).

<p>Relationship between relative annual changes in the conversion ratio of biomass to growing stock (<i>b</i>) and in the growing stock density (<i>d</i>).</p

Area (<i>A</i>), growing stock density (<i>D</i>), the conversion ratio of biomass to growing stock (<i>B</i>), and biomass carbon stock (<i>Q</i>) (Part I), and the relative annual rates of change (Part II) of these attributes for China's forests from 1977 to 2003 at the national level.

<p>Area (<i>A</i>), growing stock density (<i>D</i>), the conversion ratio of biomass to growing stock (<i>B</i>), and biomass carbon stock (<i>Q</i>) (Part I), and the relative annual rates of change (Part II) of these attributes for China's forests from 1977 to 2003 at the national level.</p

Geographical distribution of forests in China based on the data of the sixth forest inventory (1999–2003).

<p>Forests are grouped into three types: coniferous forest, broadleaved forest, and coniferous and broadleaved mixed forest. The background map shows the administrative divisions of China.</p

The relative annual rate of change of forest growing stock (<i>a + d</i>) in provinces plotted as a function of their average GDP (y = 0.003x−0.658).

<p>The change in forest growing stock was measured over the period 1977–2003. The GDP values (U.S. dollars) were for 1999.</p

Rates of change of forest area (<i>a</i>), growing stock density (<i>d</i>), and the conversion ratio of biomass to growing stock (<i>b</i>) in each province over the past three decades.

<p>Rates of change of forest area (<i>a</i>), growing stock density (<i>d</i>), and the conversion ratio of biomass to growing stock (<i>b</i>) in each province over the past three decades.</p

Spatial covariance of ecosystem services and poverty in China

<p>Ecosystem services (ESs) are known to be particularly important to the rural poor globally and effective management of such services is argued to be a sustainable pathway out of poverty. However, there is as yet no clear evidence as to how important ESs are for poverty alleviation, partly as there are very few large-scale studies addressing this issue. Here, we examine patterns of spatial covariation of income poverty and provisioning services and biodiversity using county-level data across China (<i>n</i> = 1924). We conduct our analyses both at the national scale and at the subnational scale. At the national scale, poor counties have significantly lower levels of agricultural provisioning services and water availability, but significantly higher levels of forest-related provisioning services and biodiversity. This finding supports the hypothesis that in general, high levels of poverty co-occur with areas with high levels of non-agricultural ESs. However, in the forest-dominated counties in southern China, low poverty, high densities of forest-related provisioning services and high levels of natural forest cover co-occur. Our results highlight the scale and context dependency of patterns of co-occurrence of poverty and ESs, and the importance of large-scale analyses for understanding the relationships between poverty and ESs.</p><p><b>EDITED BY</b> Berta Martín-López</p><p></p> <p><b>EDITED BY</b> Berta Martín-López</p

Relationships between soil inorganic N and N addition rates in the <i>Vitex negundo</i> (a) and <i>Spirea trilobata</i> communities.

<p>The solid lines indicate significant linear regression at p< 0.05.</p

Elevation, mean annual temperature (MAT) and soil properties of the experimental sites.

<p>STN = soil total N; STC = soil total C; STP = soil total P. Values of STN, STC, STP are expressed as mean with standard error (SE) in the parentheses of three samples.</p><p>^a Values with the same letter in a column are not significantly different (Turkey multiple comparison test; <i>p</i>> 0.05).</p><p>Elevation, mean annual temperature (MAT) and soil properties of the experimental sites.</p