The quantity and spatial patterns of aboveground biomass (AGB) are expected to correlate with ecosystem structure and biodiversity across biomes. However, the local and regional variations in the strength of such relationships remain poorly understood partly due to the influence of ecosystem disturbances, such as land-use change. Here, we quantified AGB in tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) in southern Mexico and analyzed its distribution patterns at local and regional scales. Specifically, we investigated how land use and environmental factors (that is, topography and climate) influence AGB spatial patterns and the relationship between forest structure, AGB, and tree species diversity across forests with different levels of disturbance, using 160 plots from the Mexican National Forest Inventory (FI) database. Our results show that AGB (averaging 137 Mg ha⁻¹) is strongly influenced by variations in forest structure such as stand basal area and the density of large trees, with a weak but positive relation with tree species diversity. AGB increased with elevation and slope and decreased with very high levels of precipitation and land-use intensity, suggesting that spatial variation in AGB across the region can be best predicted by the interactive effects of land use and environmental factors, with land use having a larger role. Our results challenge general assumptions about the structural and compositional properties of montane forest ecosystems and emphasize the need to explicitly include interactions between environmental and human drivers when analyzing changes in AGB and devising sustainable management plans.

地上生物量（AGB）的数量和空间格局预计与生物群落的生态系统结构和生物多样性相关。然而，由于土地利用变化等生态系统扰动的影响，人们对这种关系强度的地方和区域差异仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们量化了墨西哥南部热带山地云林（TMCF）中的 AGB，并分析了其在局部和区域尺度上的分布模式。具体来说，我们使用墨西哥国家森林公园的 160 个地块，研究了土地利用和环境因素（即地形和气候）如何影响 AGB 空间格局，以及不同干扰程度的森林结构、AGB 和树种多样性之间的关系。森林清查 (FI) 数据库。⁻¹ ) 受到林分断面积和大树密度等森林结构变化的强烈影响，与树种多样性呈弱但正相关关系。AGB随着海拔和坡度的增加而增加，随着降水量和土地利用强度的增加而减少，这表明整个地区AGB的空间变化可以通过土地利用和环境因素的交互作用来最好地预测，其中土地利用具有更大的影响。角色。我们的结果挑战了关于山地森林生态系统结构和组成特性的一般假设，并强调在分析 AGB 变化和制定可持续管理计划时，需要明确包括环境和人类驱动因素之间的相互作用。