Understanding the carbon dynamics of urban trees and forests is one of the key components for developing mitigation strategies for climate change in a fast-paced urbanized world. This study selected four plantation forests composed of poplar, black locust, Chinese pine and mixture of poplar and black locust, located in an urban forest park on a well-drained fluvial plain with same land-use history. The diurnal and seasonal changes in soil respiration (Rs) and biophysical factors were measured

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... om April 2015 to March 2016. At the diurnal scale, Rs varied out of phase with soil temperature (Ts) and the time-lag occurred in May and July when Ts was relatively high and soil moisture (Ms) was low. Strong seasonal variations in Rs were mainly determined by Ts, while the growing-season mean Rs positively correlated with the fine root biomass (FRB), soil organic carbon content (SOC), and total nitrogen content (TN) for all the forests. FRB alone could explain 75% of the among-stand variability. This study concluded that urban forest plantations have similar soil respiration dynamics to forest ecosystems in non-urban settings.