Researchers from China, Switzerland and Germany have conducted a large-scale forest biodiversity experiment, showing that a forest with rich species has higher productivity and more carbon accumulation than that with a single plant species, the China Science Daily reported Wednesday.

The findings were published online on Oct. 7 in Journal Science.

Previous studies have shown that a loss of species would weaken the function of grassland ecosystems, but whether the same was true for forests was unclear.

From 2009 to 2010, researchers set up an experimental platform in a subtropical forest in east China's Jiangxi Province, where they planted more than 300,000 trees.

After five years, they found that a forest with a mix of tree species was more productive than that with a single species, and the productivity difference grew with time.

Species richness can also help mitigate climate change. Forests can reduce greenhouse gas emission by absorbing carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere. According to researchers, after eight years, 16-species mixtures stored an average of 32 tonnes of carbon per hectare, while single-species forest plots averaged only 12 tonnes.

Furthermore, tree diversity has economic significance. Researchers have extrapolated the effects of tree species richness to the world's existing forests, and found that a 10 percent decline in tree species would result in a loss of 20 billion U.S. dollars per year.

The research shows that multispecies afforestation strategies would help restore biodiversity and mitigate climate change. (Xinhua)