干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Information on the species composition and community structure of vegetation at different successional stages is useful for understanding successional mechanisms and for selecting species for vegetation recovery. We investigated the composition and structure of plant community in different succession stages by setting 270 sample plots in all 5 types stony desertification areas of Guizhou province, China. The results show that: (1) in the early succession stage of karst rocky desertification area, the environment adaptable species mainly are pioneer species of light-demanding and drought-tolerant. With the succession, species change following a variation trend of "increasing-decreasing-increasing", Shrub stage had the largest number of plant species. (2) There is difference in plant composition in different succession stages of 5 types stony desertification areas. (3) During natural succession stages, the cover degree, predominance degree, and density of plant community represents the horizontal structural feature of karst stony desertification area. The difference in predominance degree and density is considerable, and in certain proportion relation. (4) In early-mid succession stages of plant community, plants are in contagious distribution, while in climax community succession stage, most plants are in random distribution and less are in contagious distribution. From above results, it can be concluded that the variation feature of plant communication in karst stony desertification areas follows certain natural succession law, therefore, species collocation and optimal configuration should be arranged according to natural succession law for control of stony desertification.