title: [Effects of highway on the vegetation species composition along a distance gradient from road edge in southeastern margin of Tengeer Desert].
abstract: Aimed to examine the effects of highway on the vegetation species composition in arid desert area, forty-eight transects perpendicular to the provincial highway 201 from Shapotou to Jing-tai in the southeastern margin of Tengger Desert were installed, with the vegetation species distribution along a distance gradient from the road edge investigated. The results showed that with increasing distance from the road edge, the species number, coverage, biomass, and alpha-diversity of herbaceous plants declined, but had no significant differences with the control beyond 5 m. Within 0-6 m to the road edge, the herbaceous plant height was greater than that of the control, but their density had less change. Within 0-2 m to the road edge, the species turnover rate of herbaceous plants was lower; at 2-5m, this rate was the highest; while beyond 10 m, the species composition of herbaceous plants was similar to that of the control. The herbaceous plant community at the road edge was dominated by gramineous plants, with the disturbance-tolerant species Pennisetum centrasiaticum, Chloris virgata, and Agropyron cristatum accounting for 68.6% of the total. C. virgata beyond 1 m to the road edge had a rapid decrease in its individual number and presence frequency, P. centrasiaticum and A. cristatum beyond 2 m also showed a similar trend, while the composite plants Artemisia capillaris and A. frigida beyond 2 m from the road edge had a rapid increase in its individual number, accounting for 70% of the herbaceous plants. At the road edge, the coverage and density of shrubs were significantly lower than those of the control, but the species composition had no significant difference.
authors.affiliation: Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China. fengli_lily@126.com
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Xin-Rong
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Jing-Guang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhi-Shan
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003889:Desert Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D063245:Plant Development; D010944:Plants / Q000145:classification; D011157:Population Dynamics; D014186:Transportation