Munro Nicola T, Fischer Joern, Wood Jeff, Lindenmayer David B
The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Hancock Building (43), Biology Place, Australian National University, Canberra, 0200, ACT, Australia.
Ecol Appl. 2009 Jul;19(5):1197-210. doi: 10.1890/08-0939.1.
Revegetation plantings have been established to ameliorate the negative effects of clearing remnant vegetation and to provide new habitat for fauna. We assessed the vegetation development of revegetation established on agricultural land in Gippsland, southeastern Australia. We compared (1) woodlot plantings (overstory eucalypts only) and (2) ecological plantings (many species of local trees, shrubs, and understory) with remnants and paddocks for development of vegetation structural complexity and colonizing plant species. We also assessed structural complexity and plant species composition in response to several site parameters. Structural complexity increased with age of planting, toward that of remnants, even when very few species were planted at establishment. Richness of all plants and native plants, however, did not increase with age. Native ground cover plants were not included at establishment in either planting type, and their richness also did not increase with age of planting. This indicated that colonization did not occur through time, which does not support the "foster ecosystem hypothesis." Weed species richness was unrelated to native plant richness, which does not support the "diversity-resistance hypothesis". Weed cover increased with age of planting in woodlot plantings but decreased with age in ecological plantings. Richness of all plants and native plants in plantings did not increase with planting size or with the presence of old remnant trees and was greater in gullies and where vegetation cover in the landscape was greater. Structural complexity was unaffected by planting size but was positively correlated with floristic richness. Ecological plantings had higher condition scores, greater shrub cover, more plant life-forms and fewer weeds than woodlot plantings indicating a possible greater benefit as habitat for wildlife. We conclude that ecological plantings can achieve similar overall structural complexity as remnant vegetation within 30-40 years but will not gain a native ground layer and will not necessarily contain some important structural features by this age. Ecological plantings may provide habitat for the conservation of fauna (through the development of structural complexity), but they may not provide for the conservation of non-planted flora (given the absence of re-colonizing smaller life-forms).
已开展植被重建种植，以减轻清除残余植被带来的负面影响，并为动物提供新栖息地。我们评估了澳大利亚东南部吉普斯兰地区农田上植被重建的植被发育情况。我们将（1）林地种植（仅上层桉树）和（2）生态种植（多种本地乔木、灌木和林下植物）与残余植被和牧场进行比较，以了解植被结构复杂性和定居植物物种的发育情况。我们还根据几个场地参数评估了结构复杂性和植物物种组成。即使在种植初期种植的物种很少，结构复杂性也会随着种植年限的增加而增加，接近残余植被的水平。然而，所有植物和本地植物的丰富度并未随种植年限增加。两种种植类型在种植初期均未包含本地地被植物，其丰富度也未随种植年限增加。这表明随着时间推移并未发生定殖，这并不支持“促进生态系统假说”。杂草物种丰富度与本地植物丰富度无关，这并不支持“多样性-抗性假说”。林地种植中杂草覆盖度随种植年限增加，而生态种植中杂草覆盖度随种植年限降低。种植区内所有植物和本地植物的丰富度并不随种植面积或老残余树木的存在而增加，在沟壑以及景观中植被覆盖度较高的地方丰富度更大。结构复杂性不受种植面积影响，但与植物区系丰富度呈正相关。生态种植的状况评分更高，灌木覆盖度更大，植物生活型更多，杂草更少，这表明作为野生动物栖息地可能具有更大益处。我们得出结论，生态种植在30 - 40年内可以实现与残余植被相似的总体结构复杂性，但不会形成本地地被层，到这个时期也不一定包含一些重要的结构特征。生态种植可能为动物保护提供栖息地（通过结构复杂性的发展），但可能无法为未种植的植物群提供保护（鉴于缺乏重新定殖的较小生活型）。
