Persistence of Coastal Vegetation in Supratidal Zones of Northern China

Coastal vegetation comprises a number of coastal specialists and terrestrial generalists. It remains unclear how they persist on disturbed and undisturbed coastal conditions. We tested the hypothesis that coastal specialists may be superior to terrestrial generalists on supratidal zones of coasts, but their superiority can be influenced by human disturbances. Eight separate sandy coasts of the Shandong Peninsula were sampled, representing for disturbed and undisturbed sandy coasts. Plants growing on their supratidal zones were surveyed. On this basis, we compared the relative dominances, niche widths, and commonness of all species, and also analyzed species diversities of the coasts. Coastal specialists were found to be more common and widespread on supratidal zones of the sandy coasts than terrestrial generalists haphazardly invading from hinterlands. Coastal specialists exhibited lower Sørensen dissimilarities than terrestrial generalists among the coasts. Tourist trampling seemed more detrimental than pond fishery to coastal vegetation. Relative to terrestrial generalists, coastal specialists responded to human disturbances more deterministically, with steady decreases in species diversities. These evidences verify that coastal specialists are intrinsically superior to terrestrial generalists on supratidal zones of coasts, especially of undisturbed coasts, because their dispersal among coasts adapts well to local storm surge regime. They also validate that human disturbances can depress the superiority of coastal specialists, partly by inducing invasion of terrestrial generalists.