Relationship between seedling and mature vegetation on the hilly-gullied Loess Plateau.
Seedling is an indispensable stage in plant cycle life, and seedling survival is important during natural vegetation restoration, especially on the Loess Plateau. In 2007, we selected 4 plots of Artemisia scoparia communities (ASC) and 4 plots of Artemisia gmelinii + Artemisia giraldii communities (AGC), examined seedling richness, diversity during the rainy season, and examined mature vegetation richness, coverage, and frequency in August. The results showed that seedlings density of ASC were 29 n m(-2), 33 n m(-2), 20 n m(-2) and 31 n m(-2) in July to October respectively, and that of AGC were 14 n m(-2), 12 n m(-2), 6 n m(-2) and 9 n m(-2) respectively; A. scoparia seedlings represented 53.2% of the total seedlings in ASC, the dominant species in AGC only account for less than 5% of the total seedlings. Most of the seedlings found were belonged to Compositae, Leguminoseae and Gramineae; 80% of seedlings in ASC were mainly comprised of A. scoparia and Lespedeza davurica, while in AGC that consisted of more than 6 species, such as L. davurica, Sophora viciifolia, Dracocephalum moldavicaand, A. gmelinii, Patrinia heterophylla, Heteropappus altaicus so on. Sørensen similarity index between monthly seedlings was approximately 0.47 in ASC and 0.35 in AGC; Sørensen similarity index between seedlings and mature vegetation ranged from 0.18 to 0.34 in ASC, and varied from 0.26 to 0.39 in AGC. These results suggested that seedling establishment would be a bottleneck for natural vegetation restoration when seed supply and seedling emergence were possible.
Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100 China ; Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Yan-Feng
YF
Jia
Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100 China ; Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100 China.
Ju-Ying
JY
Jiao
Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100 China ; Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Ning
N
Wang
Diversity; Seedling density; Seedling species; Similarity