Quantifying carbon storage for tea plantations in China

Quantifying carbon (C) storage is an essential task when assessing the particular C budget of a specific ecosystem. Tea is an important cash crop, and tea plantations commandeer large amounts of arable land throughout the world. In China, 1.3 million hectares dedicated to tea plantation cultivation have been established throughout the last five decades, resulting in a current total of 1.6 million hectares countrywide. For this study, C density and C pools related to biomass as well as the soil and the litter layer were estimated based upon 563 biomass and 255 soil samples procured from both field survey data and data obtained from literature. Subsequent estimations reveal that the total amount of C stored within biomass, the litter layer, and the soil of tea plantations in China is 83.3 Tg C (1 Tg = 1012 g C), 8.0 Tg C and 225.0 Tg C, respectively, and the average C density of biomass, the litter layer, and the soil is 50.90 Mg, 4.91 Mg, and 137.5 Mg C ha−1, respectively. Despite varying climatic conditions and tea plant types specific to the three separate zones, no significant differences were found in biomass C densities. This suggests that the similar managerial (e.g., pruning) practices applied in their maintenance may in fact be the primary factor that shapes tea plantation C storage. Although tea plantations store less C than do resident mature forests, the considerable C storage of tea plantations makes them a factor of critical importance in regional C accounting that cannot be ignored in future research and policymaking initiatives.

► We estimated the carbon (C) storage of the tea plantations in China.
► The tea plantations in China store comparable amount of C as forests per unit area.
► Anthropogenic managements maintain stable ecosystem C storage in tea plantations.
► Expansion of tea plantations may contribute to regional C storage in China.