The environment, demographic and epigenetic difference between two stands
There are significant difference between two populations in habitat condition and demography (Fig. 1a–e). Except for available phosphorus, other measured edaphic elements are higher in native stand than in recovering stand (Fig. 1c). The proportion of large diameter C. chinensis individuals (DBH>40 cm) changes from less than 15% in recovering forests to more than 75% in native forests (Fig. 1d–e). The mean methylation ratios in recovering and native C. chinensis populations were 19.94% and 20.06%, and there was no significant difference between them (p>0.05). However, the h- and f-type methylations in recovering populations were 1.135 and 0.91 times those in native populations (Fig. 1f).