南方冰灾干扰后车八岭山地常绿阔叶林地被植物动态变化

按生长型划分广东省车八岭国家级自然保护区山地常绿阔叶林地被植物,研究自然干扰后连续3a(2008—2010年)不同生长型地被植物的动态变化。结果表明:(1)自然干扰后地被植物优势种的变化不大;草本植物约占优势种的60%,藤本植物约占20%—30%,灌木约占10%—20%。(2)2008年各生长型地被植物的在样方中个体数分布较其它年份都更为分散且更多;2009和2010年各生长型地被植物的个体数分布模式更为相似,尤其是灌木。2008—2010年草本植物丰富度逐年增加;藤本植物逐年减少;灌木2009年最多,2008年次之,2010年最少。(3)多响应置换过程的结果显示各生长型地被植物3a间的组成和分布有极显著差异(P0.0001);从各年度的两两比较看,各生长型地被植物组成和分布的年际差异显著程度逐渐降低:其中以草本植物的年间差异最大、年间变化的指示种最多;藤本植物居中;灌木的年间差异最小、年间变化指示种也最少。指示种分析与指示种在不同组分年份中的变化情况结合起来能筛选出指示作用更强的指示种。     

Tropical montane forest ecotones: climate gradients, natural disturbance, and vegetation zonation in the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic

Aim We examined relationships between climate–disturbance gradients and patterns of vegetation zonation and ecotones on a subtropical mountain range. Location The study was conducted on the windward slopes of the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic, where cloud forest appears to shift in a narrow ecotone to monodominant forest of Pinus occidentalis. Methods Climate, disturbance and vegetation data were collected over the elevation range 1100–3100 m and in 50 paired plots along the ecotone. Aerial photographs were georeferenced to a high‐resolution digital elevation model in order to enable the analysis of landscape‐scale patterns of the ecotone. Results A Shipley–Keddy test detected discrete compositional ecotones at 2200 and 2500 m; the distributions of tree species at lower elevations were continuous. The elevation of the ecotone determined with aerial photographs was fairly consistent, namely ± 164 m (SD) over its 124‐km length, but it exhibited significant landscape variation, occurring at a lower elevation in a partially leeward, western zone. The ecotone also occurred significantly lower on ridges than it did in drainage gullies. Ecotone forest structure and composition differed markedly between paired plots. In pine paired plots, the canopy height was 1.7 times higher and the basal area of non‐pine species was 6 times lower than in the cloud forest directly below. Fire evidence was ubiquitous in the pine forest but rare in the abutting cloud forest. Mesoclimate changed discontinuously around the elevation of the ecotone: humidity and cloud formation decreased markedly, and frost frequency increased exponentially. Main conclusions The discreteness of the ecotone was produced primarily by fire. The elevational consistency of the ecotone, however, resulted from the overarching influence of mesoclimate on the elevational patterns of fire occurrence. Declining temperature and precipitation combine with the trade‐wind inversion to create a narrow zone where high‐elevation fires extinguish, enabling fire‐sensitive and fire‐tolerant taxa to abut. Once established, mesotopography and contrasting vegetation physiognomy probably reinforce this boundary through feedbacks on microenvironment and fire likelihood. The prominence of the pine in this study – and of temperate and fire‐tolerant taxa in subtropical montane forests in general – highlights the importance of climate‐disturbance–biogeography interactions in ecotone formation, particularly where fire mediates a dynamic between climate and vegetation.     

Climate and coastal dune vegetation: disturbance, recovery, and succession

The sand dune habitats found on barrier islands and other coastal areas support a dynamic plant community while protecting areas further inland from waves and wind. Foredune, interdune, and backdune habitats common to most coastal dunes have very different vegetation, likely because of the interplay among plant succession, exposure, disturbance, and resource availability. However, surprisingly few long-term data are available describing dune vegetation patterns. A nine-year census of 294 plots on St. George Island, Florida suggests that the major climatic drivers of vegetation patterns vary with habitat. Community structure is correlated with the elevation, soil moisture, and percent soil ash of each 1 m² plot. Major storms reduce species richness in all three habitats. Principle coordinate analysis suggests that changes in the plant communities through time are caused by climatic events: changes in foredune vegetation are correlated with temperature and summer precipitation, interdune vegetation with storm surge, and backdune vegetation with precipitation and storm surge. We suggest that the plant communities in foredune, interdune, and backdune habitats tend to undergo succession toward particular compositions of species, with climatic disturbances pushing the communities away from these more deterministic trajectories.     

Catastrophic disturbance and vegetation on Little Slope,Lord Howe Island

Little Slope is a series of debris avalanche deposits below basalt cliffs 700 m high at the southern end of Lord Howe Island (31°35′S 159°05′E). There are five distinct physiographic areas on the slope, each separated by sharp boundaries which mostly correspond to boundaries between features on the cliffs above. The physiography is a consequence of a series of landslides of different, but unknown, ages. A model of the physiographic history is presented. Each physiographic area supports a different vegetation community, also separated by sharp boundaries. The present structure of two communities, Melaleuca howeana scrub and Howea forsterana forest, is a consequence of damage by feral animals. Melaleuca scrub has replaced Cyperus lucidus sedgeland destroyed by goats (Capra hircus) browsing from 1914 until their extermination in 1955. Howea forest has a markedly unimodal age distribution with very few small individuals of the dominant palms. This is a result of the combined effects of browsing by goats on small palms, and seed predation by black rats (Rattus rattus) from the 1920s, preventing regeneration. Unless rat numbers are periodically reduced to reduce seed predation, regeneration may be insufficient to guarantee long-term survival of the forest.     

Water as a resource,stress and disturbance shaping tundra vegetation

Water is crucial for plant productivity and survival as a fundamental resource, but water conditions can also cause physiological stress and mechanical disturbance to vegetation. However, these different influences of water on vegetation patterns have not been evaluated simultaneously. Here, we demonstrate the importance of three water aspects (spatial and temporal variation of soil moisture and fluvial disturbance) for three ecologically and evolutionary distinct taxonomical groups (vascular plants, mosses and lichens) in Fennoscandian mountain tundra. Fine‐scale plant occurrence data for 271 species were collected from 378 × 1 m² plots sampled over broad environmental gradients (water, temperature, radiation, soil pH, cryogenic processes and the dominant allelopathic plant species). While controlling all other key environmental variables, water in its different aspects proved to be a crucial environmental driver, acting on individual species and on community characteristics. The inclusion of the water variables significantly improved our models. In this high‐latitude system, the importance of spatial variability of water exceeds the importance of temperature for the fine‐scale distribution of species from the three taxonomical groups. We found differing responses to the three water variables between and within the taxonomical groups. Water as a resource was the most important water‐related variable in species distribution models across all taxonomical groups. Both water resource and disturbance were strongly related to vascular plant species richness, whereas for moss species richness, water resources had the highest influence. For lichen species richness, water disturbance was the most influential water‐related variable. These findings demonstrate that water variables are not only independent properties of tundra hydrology, but also that water is truly a multifaceted driver of vegetation patterns at high‐latitudes.     

N-fertilization and disturbance impacts and their interaction in forest-tundra vegetation

The interaction of environmental perturbations is an important, although a seldom studied feature, when evaluating factors influencing plant community structure and potential changes in the vegetation. Since environmental perturbations commonly occur in concert, there is a need for experimental investigations in which single, combined and interactive effects of environmental factors are studied. We studied interactive effects of N-fertilization (40 kg N ha^?1 year^?1) and disturbance, i.e. removing the vegetation and soil organic layers, in the forest-tundra ecotone in northern Finland during 2002–2005. Plant abundances were measured in a coniferous forest, mountain birch forest and tundra heath. Both N-fertilization and disturbance reinforced the proportion of deciduous (Vaccinium myrtillus) and the graminoids (i.e. Deschampsia flexuosa and Carex sp.) at the expense of evergreens in vegetation. N-fertilization also enhanced the post-disturbance recovery of graminoids. Vegetation recovery was slow in the tundra heath, where N-fertilization decreased the abundance of the evergreen Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum. Although the changes in vegetation due to the N-fertilization and disturbance could be detected, they did not change the initial dominance of plant functional types. Taken together, our results suggest that increasing N affects the rate rather than direction of recovery after disturbance. Moreover, plant communities differ in terms of their capabilities to respond to multiple perturbations which should be taken into account when evaluating future vegetation responses under changing environment in at high-latitude and high-altitude ecosystems.     

Sampling techniques and disturbance of algal vegetation in permanent quadrats

Summary In studying permanent quadrats established in an algal vegetation by means of sampling in the quadrat itself, the vegetation is exposed to the risk of disturbance by the sampling. By taking small samples (microsampling or reduced size sampling) this risk is reduced considerably. The quantitative minimal area of vegetation units ofVaucheria, filamentous green algae and Oscillatoriaceae is less than 20 mm². InVaucheria components, however, often the viability for cultivation purposes is the limiting factor for the size of a sample suitable for a complete analysis of the permanent quadrat. The minimum size of a viableVaucheria sample is 1 cm². The disturbance of the algal layer by other external factors is often more intense than that caused by sampling. Nomenclature follows Polderman (1975b). Contribution to the Symposium of the Working Group for Succession Research on Permanent Plots, held at Yerseke, The Netherlands, October 1975. The author thanks Dr. Ir. W. G. Beeftink for helpful criticism and Mrs. R.A. Polderman-Hall for correcting the English text. The investigation of the algal communities of saltmarshes in the Wadden area is a project of the Netherlands Organisation for the Advancement of Pure Research.     

Reconstructed natural versus potential natural vegetation in vegetation mapping - a discussion of concepts

Reconstruction mapping of the natural (primary) vegetation of intensively cultivated land is based on: (1) classification of actually existing remains of natural or near-natural plant communities as mapping units; (2) delimitation of their habitat types; (3) detection of correlations between vegetation units and habitat types. Natural plant communities thus serve as indicators of abiotic habitat conditions. Reconstruction mapping is based on the extrapolation of the potential distribution of individual vegetation units to sites of similar habitat types where the natural vegetation does not exist any more. The same procedure is used for mapping the potential natural vegetation. Both types of natural vegetation maps are identical on sites where the abiotic natural habitat conditions (relief, geological substratum, climate, water regime, soils) remain practically unchanged. On sites where the natural habitat conditions have been considerably changed by man, e.g. in areas with superficial coal mining (complete destruction of the landscape, removal of soil cover, creation of large slag heaps) or in towns, no natural (primary) vegetation exists. This causes difficulties in the hypothetical concept of the potential natural vegetation and its definition. In contrast, in such sites reconstruction vegetation mapping uses the extrapolation of mapping units of the primary vegetation to the original natural habitat conditions.     

子午岭植被自然恢复过程中植物多样性的变化

黄土高原地区由于强烈的水土流失生态系统处于极度退化的状态,探讨该地区植被自然恢复演替过程中植物多样性的变化规律,对于指导该地区的人工植被建设具有重要的理论价值与实际意义.以时空互代的方法初步研究了黄土高原子午岭弃耕地植被自然恢复演替过程中植物多样性的变化.结果表明,在近150a的植被恢复演替过程中调查样方内共出现高等植物128种,分属于47科113属,累计出现的科、属、种数(y)随着演替时间(t)的延长呈对数函数变化y=aLn(t)+b,而且在植被恢复的前期增加速度较快,有60%的科属种在前30a出现.杠柳(Periploca sepium)与茶条槭(Acer ginnala)是植被恢复演替过程中出现最早而且持续时间最长的木本植物,具有较宽的生态位,建议作为该地区人工造林树种考虑.在植被恢复演替过程中草本层与灌木层物种丰富度指数(Gleason指数与Margalef指数)、多样性指数(Shannon-Wiener指数)以及Pielou均匀度指数的变化均表现为抛物线函数变化规律y=at2+bt+c.在不同的群落层次植物多样性的变化是不同步的,草本层、灌木层与乔木层植物多样性达到最大的时间依次为70～80a、90～100a与100a以上.森林群落植物多样性在空间上的变化顺序为草本层>灌木层>乔木层.     

喀斯特森林植被自然恢复过程中土壤可矿化碳库特征

2011年9月,采用空间代替时间方法,研究了茂兰自然保护区喀斯特森林自然恢复过程中土壤可矿化碳库的特征.结果表明: 研究期间,喀斯特森林自然恢复过程中不同深度土壤的总有机碳含量、可矿化碳含量和矿化速率随土层加深而减少,随恢复的进程而增加;累积矿化排放量及其速率随恢复的进程增加,其速率随培养时间延长而减小;矿化率随恢复的进程增加,而随土层加深的变化不明显;qCO₂值随恢复的进程和土层加深而递减;土壤可矿化碳与凋落物现存量及其分解质量损失率分别呈负相关(r=-0.796)和正相关(r=0.924);土壤生境由早期干扰强烈转向中后期日趋稳定,土壤的固碳能力由早期差、潜力大转向中后期强、潜力小.     

Pattern and process: evidence for the evolution of photosynthetic traits in natural populations

The patterns of interspecific variation identified by comparative studies provide valuable hypotheses about the role of physiological traits in evolutionary adaptation. This review covers tests of these hypotheses for photosynthetic traits that have used a microevolutionary perspective to characterize physiological variation among and within populations. Studies of physiological differentiation among populations show that evolutionary divergence in photosynthetic traits is common within species, and has a pattern that supports many adaptive hypotheses. These among-population studies imply that selection has influenced photosynthetic traits in some way, but they are not designed to identify the traits targeted by selection or the environmental agents that cause selection. Analyses of genetic and phenotypic variation within populations address these questions. Studies that have quantified genetic variation within populations show that levels of heritable variation can be adequate for evolutionary change in photosynthetic traits. Other studies have measured phenotypic selection for these traits by analyzing how the variation within populations is correlated with fitness. This work has shown that selection for photosynthetic traits may often operate indirectly via correlations with other traits, and emphasizes the importance of viewing the phenotype as an integrated function of growth, morphology, life-history and physiology. We also outline some methodological problems that may be encountered for ecophysiological traits by these types of studies, provide some potential solutions, and discuss future directions for the field of plant evolutionary ecophysiology.     

Landscape scale effects of disturbance on riparian vegetation

1. Differing responses in riparian species richness and composition to disturbance have been reported as a possible explanation for the differences along and between rivers. This paper explores the role of physical disturbance in shaping landscape‐scale patterns of species distribution in riparian vegetation along a free‐flowing river in northern Sweden. 2. To test whether sensitivity to disturbance varies across large landscapes, we experimentally disturbed riparian vegetation along an entire, free‐flowing river by scouring the soil and the vegetation turf, cutting vegetation, applying waterborne plant litter, and after a period of recovery we measured vegetation responses. The experiment was repeated for two consecutive years. 3. We found no significant effect of disturbance on species composition, but all three forms of disturbance significantly reduced species richness. There was no downstream variation in community responses to disturbance but morphological groups of species responded differently to different kinds of disturbance. Graminoids were most resistant, suppressed only by litter burial. All forms of disturbance except cutting reduced the density of herbaceous species, and species density of trees + shrubs and dwarf shrubs was negatively affected by both scouring and cutting. We also evaluated the effects of disturbance in relation to varying levels of species richness. In nearly all cases, responses were significantly negatively correlated with control plot species richness, and relative responses indicated that species‐rich plots were less resistant to scouring and cutting. 4. Our results suggest that although all disturbance treatments had an effect on species richness, variation in sensitivity to disturbance is not the most important factor shaping landscape‐scale patterns of riparian plant species richness along rivers.     

Modeling the potential natural vegetation of Minnesota,USA

Assessing the effects of human land use and management decisions requires an understanding of how temporal changes in biodiversity influence the rate of ecosystem functions and subsequent delivery of ecosystem services. In highly modified anthromes, the spatial distribution of natural vegetation types is often unknown or coarsely represented challenging comparative analyses seeking to assess changes in biodiversity and potential downstream effects on ecosystem processes and functions. In this context, the objectives of this study were to construct a multi-resolution representation of potential natural vegetation at four hierarchical classification levels of increasing floristic and physiognomic detail for the state of Minnesota, USA. Using a collection of natural/near-natural vegetation relevés, a series of Random Forest classification models were used to project the potential distribution of natural vegetation types based on their association with a variety of environmental variables.Model performance varied within and between classification levels with overall accuracy ranging between 64–99% (kappa 0.44–0.99). Model performance tended to decrease and become more variable with increasing floristic complexity at finer classification levels. Classwise performance metrics including precision and sensitivity were also reported. A method for exploring potential class confusion resulting from niche overlap using Random Forest proximities and Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling is demonstrated.Collectively, the results presented here provide an analytically supported baseline representation of potential natural vegetation for the state of Minnesota, USA. These data can provide a backdrop to further analyses surrounding the influence of human activity on ecosystem processes and services as well as inform future conservation and restoration efforts.     

Precise vegetation restoration in arid regions based on potential natural vegetation and potential normalized difference vegetation index

Precise vegetation restoration is critical in drylands, as some inappropriate restoration attempts have even increased water scarcity and degradation in afforestation areas. Potential natural vegetation (PNV) is widely used to provide a reference for the appropriate location and vegetation type of restoration programs while the appropriate restored areas remain unknown. Therefore, we proposed a PNV–potential normalized difference vegetation index (PNDVI) coupling framework based on multiple machine learning (ML) algorithms for precise dryland vegetation restoration. Taking the lower Tarim River Basin (LTRB) with a total area of 1,182 km² as a case study, its present suitable restoration locations, area, and appropriate planting species were quantitatively estimated. The results showed that the model developed by incorporating PNDVI into PNV with easily measurable and available data such as temperature and soil properties can accurately identify dryland restoration patterns. In LTRB, the potentially suitable habitats of trees and grass are closer to the riverbank, while shrubby habitats are further away from the course, covering 1.88, 2.96, and 25.12 km², respectively. There is still enormous land potential for further expansion of the current trees and grass in the LTRB, with 2.56 and 1.54% of existing land supposed to be trees and grass, respectively. This study's novel aspect is combining PNV and PNDVI to quantify and estimate precise restoration patterns through multiple ML algorithms. The model developed here can be used to evaluate the suitable reforestation locations, area, and vegetation types in drylands and to provide a basis for precise vegetation restoration.     

Slow recovery in desert perennial vegetation following prolonged human disturbance

Questions: How long may it take for desert perennial vegetation to recover from prolonged human disturbance and how do different plant community variables (i.e. diversity, density and cover) change during the recovery process? Location: Sonoran Desert, Arizona, USA. Methods: Since protection from grazing from 1907 onwards, plant diversity, density and cover of perennial species were monitored intermittently on ten 10 m × 10 m permanent plots on Tumamoc Hill, Tucson, Arizona, USA. Results: The study shows an exceptionally slow recovery of perennial vegetation from prolonged heavy grazing and other human impacts. Since protection, overall species richness and habitat heterogeneity at the study site continued to increase until the 1960s when diversity, density and cover had been stabilized. During the same period, overall plant density and cover also increased. Species turnover increased gradually with time but no significant relation between any of the three community variables and precipitation or Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) was detected. Conclusions: It took more than 50 yr for the perennial vegetation to recover from prolonged human disturbance. The increases in plant species richness, density, and cover of the perennial vegetation were mostly due to the increase of herbaceous species, especially palatable species. The lack of a clear relationship between environment (e.g. precipitation) and community variables suggests that site history and plant life history must be taken into account in examining the nature of vegetation recovery processes after disturbance.     

放猪干扰对四川夹金山植物群落特征和生物量的影响

选择四川省夹金山针阔混交林,采用典型样地法调查、RDA二维排序分析高山高地植物群落的物种多样性与地上地下生产力的关系及两者对不同等级放猪干扰的响应,结果显示：（1）夹金山针阔混交林群落共有植物55科117属172种,乔木层、灌木层在各程度干扰下优势种变动较小,川滇长尾槭（Acer caudatum var.prattii）、箭竹（Fargesia spathacea）等始终占据首要地位,草本层优势种变化较大;（2）随干扰程度增加,一年生草本重要值升高,多年生草本重要值降低,其中适口性较强的禾草类植物重要值降低,且草本层地下与地上生物量比值明显降低;（3）乔灌草三层物种多样性水平在轻度干扰下最高,重度干扰下最低;（4） RDA结果分析显示,灌、草本层各物种多样指数（除Pielou均匀度指数外）与各层次生物量呈正相关,乔木层各多样性指数与灌木层地上地下生物量、枯落物量均呈正相关;（5）轻度干扰梯度下幼苗占比显著高于其他干扰梯度,I级下林内几乎未发现成活的乔木优势种幼树,群落更新能力最差。综上,建议将重度、较重度（Ⅱ级）干扰样地（即距养猪场2000 m范围内）的管理措施设置为禁牧或轮牧,重点维护川滇长尾槭、糙皮桦（Betula utilis）的幼树生长以促进更新。     

基于Landsat时序影像和LandTrendr算法的森林保护区植被扰动研究——以陕西柴松和太白山保护区为例

跟踪森林自然保护区的森林变化及其时空特征,可为保护区生态保护评价提供科学依据。使用LandTrendr算法和谷歌地球引擎（GEE）的Landsat卫星时间序列数据,描述了柴松和太白山保护区的长期（1984-2018年）森林变化模式。对森林变化像元和稳定像元的总体识别精度达到93%,对扰动年探测的总体精度为89%。在柴松保护区,扰动年发生在2008年左右,大部分扰动由人类活动引起。在太白山保护区,扰动年主要发生在2013年,由自然因素造成。柴松和太白山保护区的森林扰动面积分别为42.74 hm²和23.68 hm²。柴松保护区的扰动斑块数多于太白山,表明柴松保护区自2004年建立后干扰频繁。本研究可以帮助研究人员和决策者了解这两个保护区的森林状况,可为森林生态系统的自然保护区保护评估提供基线信息。     

不同人为干扰下纳帕海湖滨湿地植被及土壤退化特征

以滇西北高原纳帕海湖滨退化湿地为研究对象,对比分析了人为隔断水源补给、牛羊过度放牧和家猪拱地三种人为干扰下湿地植被和土壤退化特征。结果表明：三种干扰方式下,纳帕海湖滨湿地植物群落类型多样性、物种丰富度、物种数、Shannon-Wiener指数、沼生植物重要值以及土壤有机质、全氮、速效氮、含水率、毛管孔隙度变化规律为：人为隔断水源补给＞牛羊过度放牧＞家猪拱地,而土壤容重和全钾含量变化规律完全相反。Pearson相关性分析表明,不同人为干扰下相同土壤指标之间相关性质和相关强度不同;CCA分析表明植物群落种类组成和分布与土壤含水率和全磷含量显著相关。以原生湿地样点为对照,人为隔断水源补给、牛羊过度放牧和家猪拱地样带土壤退化指数分别为-7.40%、-14.53%、-45.01%。认为纳帕海湖滨湿地退化是三种干扰协同作用结果,但作用程度不同,其顺序为家猪拱地＞牛羊过度放牧＞人为隔断水源补给。     

Pattern,process and geographic modes of speciation

The tradition of classifying cases of speciation into discrete geographic categories (allopatric, parapatric and sympatric) fuelled decades of fruitful research and debate. Not surprisingly, as the science has become more sophisticated, this simplistic taxonomy has become increasingly obsolete. Geographic patterns are now reasonably well understood. Sister species are rarely sympatric, implying that sympatric speciation, it its most general sense, is rare. However, sympatric speciation, even in its most restricted population genetic sense, is possible. Several case studies have demonstrated that divergence has occurred in nature without geographic barriers to gene flow. Obviously, different sets of criteria for sympatric speciation will lead to different numbers of qualifying cases. But changing the rules of nomenclature to make ‘sympatric speciation’ more or less common does not constitute scientific progress. Advances in the study of speciation have come from studies of the processes that constrain or promote divergence, and how they are affected by geography.