WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
A 1,277-day litterbag study compared four plantation stands under different management histories. Strip thinning and filling showed higher humus carbon and humification degree and less-negative humus-carbon change than artificial gaps in exploratory contrasts, while litter substrate explained the largest share of modeled humification variation.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Belowground carbon pathways can respond differently from visible stand structure. For management evaluation, litter identity, microclimate and decomposition stage may matter as much as the categorical treatment name.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
Each management practice was represented by only one stand; plots were nested subsamples, not independent stand-level replicates. The authors explicitly treat treatment contrasts as exploratory, and several global management effects were non-significant, so the result cannot support a broad prescription for strip thinning.
SOURCE
Frontiers in Soil Science
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