山海关海岸带盐生种子植物调查及生态应用探讨

对山海关滨海盐生植物及盐生植被景观和群落配置情况进行实地调查并参考历史文献,发现山海关滨海湿地共有盐生种子植物26科44属51种。结合山海关海岸带的气候、土壤理化性质及土地覆盖和利用的现状,选择乔、灌木类盐生植物3种,藤本类盐生植物1种,中生草本盐生植物5种,旱生草本盐生植物2种,湿生植物4种,共计15种作为滨海地区盐碱地改良和植被恢复的野生植物种类。     

重庆市澎溪河湿地自然保护区湿地植物资源研究

以重庆市澎溪河湿地自然保护区为研究对象,对保护区内的湿地植物资源进行了全面调查.结果表明,保护区内湿地植物共有34科67属100种,主要的植被类型有4个植被型及宽叶香蒲群落(Typha latifolia )、水蓼群落(Polygonum hydropiper)等17个群系,并分析了植被分布特征和新生消落带的影响.鉴于湿地植物对生物多样性的保护和蕴含的巨大生产力,提出了湿地植物保护和利用的对策.     

玛纳斯河谷水源地植被分布特征研究

通过对玛纳斯河谷水源地区域植被样方分析发现,该区域植被以旱生植物为主,植被分布主要受地形地貌、地下水埋深的综合影响,沿中间洼地向东西两侧不同阶地呈显著的垂直地带性分布规律,低地草甸植被一般生长在地下水埋深不足2m的区域,灌木半灌木、乔木等一般位于地下水埋深低于9m的区域,地下水埋深大于30m的区域,基本为山地荒漠草原植被。进一步对研究区植被群落优势度进行了计算,结果表明研究区优势植被群落依次为红柳群落、芦苇群落、苦豆子群落、沼柳群落、粉苞苣群落、锦鸡儿群落、榆树群落等。     

新疆孔雀河下游退化植被对环境的响应研究

本文依据实地监测资料,分析了孔雀河下游断流河道的植被退化特征及植物类群与环境的关系,旨在为荒漠河岸生态系统保护与恢复提供参考。结果表明:胡杨作为孔雀河下游荒漠河岸林的建群种及优势种,顺沿河道呈现出死亡数增加的趋势;存留胡杨以成年木较多,存留格局为集聚型。K1断面物种多样性及丰富度平均值都较高,反映出群落相对的稳定性;K2断面多样性与丰富度都较低,且均匀度波动较大,反映出群落的不稳定性。CCA排序把植被分为深水位-适盐类群、深水位-耐盐类群与浅水位-喜盐类群,其中以胡杨为优势的深水位-适盐类群维持了较好的土壤养分,而以盐爪爪、盐穗木为优势的浅水位-喜盐类群,占据了地下水埋深浅、盐分含量高、养分极端贫瘠的生境。     

黄荆自然保护区植物区系的初步研究

黄荆自然保护区地处四川盆地与云贵高原的过渡地带,地带性植被为亚热带偏湿性常绿阔叶林,有种子植物165科745属1521种,其中裸子植物9科19属24种,被子植物156科726属1497种.该区特殊的自然条件和复杂的地质构造,使其成为多种植物地理成分的汇集地,并成为我国乃至全世界亚热带(同纬度)地区保存较好的常绿阔叶林植被群落,具有极高的研究价值和生态价值.根据近年来的科学考察,认为黄荆自然保护区植物区系的种类丰富、珍稀特有植物较多、起源古老、区系成分复杂,显示出多方植物交汇的特点.     

四川彭州铜尾矿库植被特征分析与植物群落演替初探

本文分析了四川彭州铜矿尾矿库的植被特征、群落特征与演替。在该尾矿库上自然定居的高等植物共91种,隶属38科79属,以菊科（Compositae）和禾本科（Gramineae）植物为主。形成6种相对稳定的群落类型;在2003年弃耕后形成的地段分布有史蒿＋小飞蓬群落（Artemisia argyi＋Conyza conadensis Comm．）、艾蒿＋打破碗花花群落（Artemisia argyi＋Anemone hupehensis Comm．）、艾蒿群落（Artemisia argyi Comm．）和白车轴苹群落（Trifolium repens Comm．）;在经过30～40年自然演替的地段分布有芭茅＋羊耳菊群落（Miscanthus sinensis＋Inula cappa Comm．）和羊耳菊＋千里光＋密蒙花群落（Inula cappa＋Senecio scandens＋Buddleja officinalis Comm．）;在近十年内新形成的地段现主要覆盖地衣和葫芦藓（Funaria hygrometrica）。通过对群落结构和不同地段植被特征的对比,对本铜尾矿库的演替现状和规律进行了分析,井讨论了人为影响对演替进程的影响,提出了人工恢复措施的建议。     

重庆荒山灌草丛的生态学特点及其开发利用

荒山灌草丛是指中生或旱中生多年生草本植物为主要建群种,但其中也有散生灌木的植物群落。它是我国南北各地荒山、荒地上的主要植被类型,大部份是由森林、灌木反复砍伐、火烧导致水土流失、土壤日益瘠薄、生境趋于旱化所形成的次生植被类型。在亚热带植被研究中沿用了诸如草山、草坡、荒山草丛、次生灌草丛、丘陵荒山荒地等名称,实际上都是荒山灌草丛的同义词。长期以来,对它的研究很少,因而忽视了对     

地震勘探引起植被棋盘式分布分析

通过高分辨率卫星遥感数据和实地调研,发现黄河三角洲的很多区域因胜利油田地震勘探而引起植被棋盘式分布。地震勘探引起植被群落斑块扩展,就其生态作用来说,与当前黄河三角洲生态恢复、保护和重建植被这一目标相吻合。此种植被群落的扩展,无须额外经费投入,对此进行深入研究,寻找使其从自发状态转变为通过人工协调可在适宜区域最大限度扩展的对策,将有助于更好地协调油田开发和湿地生态保护之间的矛盾。     

香根草在尾矿库闭库工程中的应用评述

香根草具有适应性强，根系庞大和耐金属污染等生物特性，其应用实例证明香根草在恢复植被，固坡，改良土壤和防止水土流失等方面具有常规植物无法比拟的优越性，可在尾矿库闭库工程中推广应用。     

青南高原“黑土滩”草地群落特征的研究

对高寒草甸及其退化产物—“黑土滩”草地按退化特征划分了6个等级,分别研究了各级草地的群落特征和物种多样性。结果表明:随草地退化程度的加大,群落产量在各级草地内变化不明显,但毒杂草比例有着明显增加的趋势(P<0.01);原生植被嵩草属植物优势度和草地活根量(30cm)趋于明显减少(P<0.01);中度退化的“黑土滩”草地物种多样性指数较大,为3.234。     

Analysis of Ecological Context for Identifying Vegetation and Animal Conservation Planning Foci: An Example from the Arid South-western USA

In developing conservation strategies, it is important to maximize effects of conservation within a specified land tract and to maximize conservation effects on surrounding area (ecological context). The authors proposed two criteria to select biotic entities for conservation foci: (1) the relative occurrence of fauna or flora in a tract is greater than that of an ecological context region; and (2) occurrence of the fauna or flora is relatively limited in the ecological context region. Using extensive spatial data on vegetation and wildlife habitat distribution, the authors identified strategic vegetation and fauna conservation foci for the 400 000 ha Fort Bliss military reservation in New Mexico and Texas relative to a 164 km radius ecological context region intersecting seven ecological zones and the predicted habitat distribution of 616 animal species. The authors set two specific criteria: (1) predicted area of a species' occurrence is <50% of the ecological context region; and (2) percentage of Fort Bliss intersecting the species' or vegetation community predicted areas in the ecological context region is >5% (Fort Bliss is 4.2% of the region). These criteria selected one vegetation class and 40 animal species. Further, these vegetation and animal foci were primarily located in two areas of Fort Bliss. Sensitivity analyses with other analytical radii corroborated the context radius used. Conservation of the two areas and associated taxa will maximize the contribution of Fort Bliss's conservation efforts in its ecological proximity. This relatively simple but information-rich process represents economical and defensible preliminary contextual analysis for detailed conservation planning.     

Early Vegetation Development on an Exposed Reservoir: Implications for Dam Removal

The 4-year drawdown of Horsetooth Reservoir, Colorado, for dam maintenance, provides a case study analog of vegetation response on sediment that might be exposed from removal of a tall dam. Early vegetation recovery on the exposed reservoir bottom was a combination of (1) vegetation colonization on bare, moist substrates typical of riparian zones and reservoir sediment of shallow dams and (2) a shift in moisture status from mesic to the xeric conditions associated with the pre-impoundment upland position of most of the drawdown zone. Plant communities changed rapidly during the first four years of exposure, but were still substantially different from the background upland plant community. Predictions from the recruitment box model about the locations of Populus deltoides subsp. monilifera (plains cottonwood) seedlings relative to the water surface were qualitatively confirmed with respect to optimum locations. However, the extreme vertical range of water surface elevations produced cottonwood seed regeneration well outside the predicted limits of drawdown rate and height above late summer stage. The establishment and survival of cottonwood at high elevations and the differences between the upland plant community and the community that had developed after four years of exposure suggest that vegetation recovery following tall dam removal will follow a trajectory very different from a simple reversal of the response to dam construction, involving not only long time scales of establishment and growth of upland vegetation, but also possibly decades of persistence of legacy vegetation established during the reservoir to upland transition.     

Expedient Metrics to Describe Plant Community Change Across Gradients of Anthropogenic Influence

Human influence associated with land use may cause considerable biodiversity losses, namely in oceanic islands such as the Azores. Our goal was to identify plant indicator species across two gradients of increasing anthropogenic influence and management (arborescent and herbaceous communities) and determine similarity between plant communities of uncategorized vegetation plots to those in reference gradients using metrics derived from R programming. We intend to test and provide an expedient way to determine the conservation value of a given uncategorized vegetation plot based on the number of native, endemic, introduced, and invasive indicator species present. Using the metric IndVal, plant taxa with a significant indicator value for each community type in the two anthropogenic gradients were determined. A new metric, ComVal, was developed to assess the similarity of an uncategorized vegetation plot toward a reference community type, based on (i) the percentage of pre-defined indicator species from reference communities present in the vegetation plots, and (ii) the percentage of indicator species, specific to a given reference community type, present in the vegetation plot. Using a data resampling approach, the communities were randomly used as training or validation sets to classify vegetation plots based on ComVal. The percentage match with reference community types ranged from 77 to 100 % and from 79 to 100 %, for herbaceous and arborescent vegetation plots, respectively. Both IndVal and ComVal are part of a suite of useful tools characterizing plant communities and plant community change along gradients of anthropogenic influence without a priori knowledge of their biology and ecology.     

Tropical annual cropping systems: Ant ecology

The ecological role of ants in tropical annual cropping systems is discussed in general and with respect to a specific Mexican agroecosystem Generally, the potential positive contributions of ants to crop yields result from their impact on soil structure, nutrient cycling, and reduction of insect and weed pests In annual wet lowland fields in eastern Mexico, the ant community is simple and dominated by the aggressive fire ant,Solenopsis geminata. The influence of vegetation structure and composition on the ant community and, specifically, on the foraging behavior ofS geminata is discussed     

Stable carbon isotope ratio and composition of microbial fatty acids in tropical soils

The soil microbial community plays a critical part in tropical ecosystem functioning through its role in the soil organic matter (SOM) cycle. This study evaluates the relative effects of soil type and land use on (i) soil microbial community structure and (ii) the contribution of SOM derived from the original forest vegetation to the functioning of pasture and sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) ecosystems. We used principal components analysis (PCA) of soil phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles to evaluate microbial community structure and PLFA stable carbon isotope ratios (delta13C) as indicators of the delta13C of microbial substrates. Soil type mainly determined the relative proportions of gram positive versus gram negative bacteria whereas land use primarily determined the relative proportion of fungi, protozoa, and actinomycetes versus other types of microorganisms. Comparison of a simple model to our PLFA delta13C data from land use chronosequences indicates that forest-derived SOM is actively cycled for appreciably longer times in sugarcane ecosystems developed on Andisols (mean turnover time = 50 yr) than in sugarcane ecosystems developed on an Oxisol (mean turnover time = 13 yr). Our analyses indicate that soil chronosequence PLFA delta13C measurements can be useful indicators of the contribution that SOM derived from the original vegetation makes to continued ecosystem function under the new land use.     

Preliminary Estimation of the Realistic Optimum Temperature for Vegetation Growth in China

The estimation of optimum temperature of vegetation growth is very useful for a wide range of applications such as agriculture and climate change studies. Thermal conditions substantially affect vegetation growth. In this study, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and daily temperature data set from 1982 to 2006 for China were used to examine optimum temperature of vegetation growth. Based on a simple analysis of ecological amplitude and Shelford’s law of tolerance, a scientific framework for calculating the optimum temperature was constructed. The optimum temperature range and referenced optimum temperature (ROT) of terrestrial vegetation were obtained and explored over different eco-geographical regions of China. The results showed that the relationship between NDVI and air temperature was significant over almost all of China, indicating that terrestrial vegetation growth was closely related to thermal conditions. ROTs were different in various regions. The lowest ROT, about 7.0 °C, occurred in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, while the highest ROT, more than 22.0 °C, occurred in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Southern China region.     

Impacts of hydroelectric development on riparian vegetation in the Sierra Nevada region,California, USA

Fourteen streams in the Sierra Nevada in the USA were sampled to determine whether diversions of streamflow for hydroelectric development had caused significant changes in riparian vegetation. Several streams showed significant differences in vegetation cover, community composition, or community structure between pairs of diverted and undiverted reaches. On some streams, environmental conditions rather than streamflow diversions may have been responsible for vegetation differences. Streams in the Sierra Nevada respond individualistically to diversions. Prediction of vegetation responses must take into consideration environmental characteristics of specific stream reaches.     

Understanding the Role of Local Management in Vegetation Recovery Around Pastoral Settlements in Northern Kenya

The recent greening of the Sahel region and increase in vegetation cover around pastoral settlements previously described as “man-made deserts”, have raised important questions on the permanency of land degradation associated with the over-exploitation of woody plants. Evidence presented is mostly on increased wetness, while management by local communities has received limited attention. This study evaluated changes in woody vegetation cover around the settlements of Kargi and Korr in northern Kenya, using satellite imagery (1986/2000), ecological ground surveys and interviews with local elders, in order to understand long-term changes in vegetation cover and the role of local community in vegetation dynamics. At both settlements, there were increments in vegetation cover and reduction in the extent of bare ground between 1986 and 2000. At Kargi settlement, there were more tree seedlings in the centre of settlement than further away. Mature tree class was more abundant in the centre of Korr than outside the settlement. The success of the regeneration and recovery of tree cover was attributed to the actions of vegetation management initiative including stringent measures by the local Environmental Management Committees. This study provides good evidence that local partnership is important for sustainable management of resources especially in rural areas where the effectiveness of government initiative is lacking.     

Associations between stream valley geomorphology and riparian vegetation as a basis for landscape analysis in the eastern Sierra Nevada,California, USA

Ten streams in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California, were classified into six geomorphic valley types and sampled to determine environmental and riparian vegetation conditions. The geomorphic valley types were relatively uniform geologically and hydrologically, collectively representing the range of stream environments in the region. There were significant associations between the geomorphic valley types and riparian community composition. These geomorphic-vegetation units are landscape elements which comprise the riparian ecosystems in the region. They differ in their ecological charactersitics and sensitivity to management. The system of landscape elements can be used to classify streams for the purposes of resource inventory, detailed ecological studies, and impact prediction.