Analysis on the Relationship Between the Functional Traits of Tree Species and Litter Standing Crop in the Subtropical Artificial Young Forests

As an important part of the forest ecosystem, the litter is an important link in the material cycle of the ecosystem. In this paper, the functional traits of leaves and stems and the litter standing crop of 28 common tree species in the subtropical artificial young forests were selected as the research objects, in order to explore the relationship between the functional traits of tree species and litter standing crop in the subtropical artificial young forests. The results showed that the evergreen broad-leaved tree species had the highest litter standing crop (mean 123.73 g·m^-2), followed by the deciduous broad-leaved tree species (mean 57.08 g·m^-2) and the evergreen needle-leaved tree species (mean 54.61 g·m^-2). The deciduous tree species such as Hovenia acerba, Ormosia hosiei, and Alnus trabeculosa had the characteristics of high true leaf area, leaf nitrogen concentration, low leaf tannin content and wood density, indicating that these tree species exhibited the acquisitive strategies in resource utilization, while the evergreen tree species such as Osmanthus fragrans, Lithocarpus glaber, Michelia maudiae and Castanopsis sclerophylla had the opposite characteristics, showing the conservative strategy in resource utilization. There was a significant negative correlation between the litter standing crop and leaf nitrogen content and leaf non-structural carbohydrates in the subtropical artificial young forests. The results showed that the functional traits of plants not only affected the plant growth rate, but also affected the litter standing crop through the decomposition rate. Therefore, the leaf functional traits of tree species should be considered in the selection of tree species for afforestation.