Site description
This study was conducted in Chebaling National Nature Reserve in the Guangdong Province of southern China (114°09′–114°16′E, 24°40′–24°46′N), with elevation ranging from 330 m to 1256 m above sea level. The climate is a typical subtropical monsoon, with mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation with 19.6 °C and 1,468 mm (He et al. , 2021). The vegetation is well-preserved subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests, dominated by Schima superba, Machilus chinensis,  and Eurya nitida . Soils are classified in the ultisol order and the adult suborder according to the USDA soil classification system (Zhou et al., 2013).