草地生态学领域空斑研究进展

空斑(gap)是近几十年来草地生态学领域的重点研究对象之一,在草地植被更新、群落结构和草地生态系统物种多样性维持方面起着重要作用。本文在介绍空斑的概念、功能分类和形成的基础上,总结分析了国内外对空斑的研究现状,发现目前对草地空斑的研究主要集中在空斑大小、空斑类型对物种更新以及空斑对群落结构和物种多样性影响等方面,而对空斑小环境和土壤的研究较少,对空斑内生理生态学、机理和机制性的问题尚缺乏深入探讨;建议在今后加强对空斑内环境变化、空斑内物种的生理生态学特性和物种对空斑更新的响应机制等方面的研究。

Research advances in grassland gap

Gap is the focus of grassland ecological research over the past few decades,which plays an important role in promoting recruitment and maintaining community structure and species diversity in grassland ecosystem.Many plant species require the gaps of specific dimension,shape,and duration for their successful germination,emergence and establishment.This paper introduced the concept,formation,and functional types of gap,and summarized the research progress on grassland gap.The related researches were mainly focused on the effects of gap size and type on regeneration,and the influences of gap on community structure and species diversity.As for the gap microenvironment,few studies were made on the soil difference between gap and non-gap,and the physiological and ecological mechanisms of gap as well as the responses of plant species to gap were poorly understand. It was suggested that the studies of gap microenvironment,the physiological and ecological characteristics of plant species in gaps,and the response mechanism of species regeneration to gap should be strengthened in the future.