Plant community characteristics and their responses to environmental factors in the water level fluctuation zone of the three gorges reservoir in China

The annual water level regulating of the Three Gorges Reservoir prolonged the submerged duration (from 2 to 8 months) and resulted in the reversal of natural flood rhythms (winter submerged). These changes might alter plant community characteristics in the water level fluctuation zone (WLFZ). The aim of this study was to determine the plant community characteristics in the WLFZ and their responses to the environmental factors (i.e., annual hydrological regulation, topographic characteristics, soil physical properties and soil nutrients). The height, coverage, frequency and biomass of each plant species and the soil properties at each elevation zone (150, 155, 160, 165 and 170 m) were measured from March to September in 2010. Univariate two-factor analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA) were used to analyze the spatial and temporal variations of the community characteristics and identify the key environmental factors influencing vegetation. We found that 93.2 % of the species analysed were terrestrial vascular plants. Annual herbs made up the highest percentage of life forms at each altitude. The differences in the species number per square metre, the Shannon–Wiener diversity index and the biomass of vegetation demonstrated statistical significance with respect to sampling time but not elevation. The most dominant species at altitudes of 150, 155, 160, 165 and 170 m were Cynodon dactylon, Cyperus rotundus, Digitaria sanguinalis, Setaria viridis and Daucus carota, respectively. The concentrations of soil nutrients appeared to be the lowest at an altitude of 150 m, although the differences with respect to elevation were not significant. The results of the RDA indicated that the key factors that influenced the species composition of vegetation were elevation, slope, pH and the concentration of soil available phosphorus.