Peking University research team finds negative effect of moisture on forest height

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 14 (report) - A Peking University research team led by Fang Jingyun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently used spaceborne lidar data to reveal the global distribution of forest height and its determining factors, namely that excessive precipitation is not conducive to tree height growth. This finding is of great significance for forest carbon cycle research, forest management, and the improvement of global dynamic vegetation models.

Forest height is one of the most basic structural parameters of forests and is of great significance for estimating forest biomass, predicting biodiversity, and more. For this reason, the patterns and determining factors of global forest height have long been a research hotspot in academia. Around this topic, scientists have proposed numerous hypotheses and generally believe that moisture is the most important factor determining forest height, that is, as moisture increases, forest height gradually increases and ultimately remains at its maximum height.

Recently, the research team led by Fang Jingyun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University, used spaceborne lidar data to assess the patterns and determining factors of global forest canopy height. They found that global forest height reaches its highest near 40 degrees north and south latitude and in the equatorial region. Through their research, the team concluded that moisture is indeed the main determining factor of forest height, but as moisture increases, forest height gradually declines after reaching its maximum, and excessive precipitation is not conducive to tree height growth.

This research result overturns the long-held understanding in academia on this scientific question and reveals the "negative effect" of moisture on forest height, providing guidance for future forest research and management. The research result was recently published in Ecology, an authoritative journal in the field of ecological science in the United States. (Reporter Wei Mengjia)