He Huiqin, Monaco Thomas
College of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Yibin University, Yibin 644000, China.
US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Forage and Range Research Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-6300, USA.
Plants (Basel). 2017 Aug 30;6(3):36. doi: 10.3390/plants6030036.
It is widely recognized that feedbacks exist between plant litter and plant community species composition, but this relationship is difficult to interpret over heterogeneous conditions typical of modified environments such as roadways. Given the need to expedite natural recovery of disturbed areas through restoration interventions, we characterized litter accumulation and nutrient content (i.e., organic carbon, total N, and P) and quantified their association with key plant species. Plant species cover and litter characteristics were sampled at 18 successional forest plant communities along major roadways in Sichuan Basin, western China. Variation in litter across communities was assessed with principal component analysis (PCA) and species with the highest correlation to PCA axes were determined with Pearson's coefficients. Plant communities with the longest time since road construction (i.e., 70 years) were distinctly different in litter total N and organic carbon compared to plant communities with a shorter disturbance history. We encountered 59 plant species across sampling plots, but only four rare species (i.e., frequency < 5) were strongly correlated with litter characteristics ( < 0.01); none of which were the most abundant where they occurred. These results highlight the importance of site-specific factors (i.e., geographic location, disturbance age) regulating plant litter across heavily disturbed landscapes and how litter characteristics and rare plant species are correlated.
人们普遍认识到植物凋落物与植物群落物种组成之间存在反馈，但在道路等改造环境典型的异质条件下，这种关系难以解释。鉴于需要通过恢复干预加速受干扰地区的自然恢复，我们对凋落物积累和养分含量（即有机碳、总氮和磷）进行了表征，并量化了它们与关键植物物种的关联。在中国西部四川盆地主要道路沿线的18个演替森林植物群落中，对植物物种覆盖度和凋落物特征进行了采样。利用主成分分析（PCA）评估群落间凋落物的变化，并通过皮尔逊系数确定与PCA轴相关性最高的物种。与干扰历史较短的植物群落相比，道路建设时间最长（即70年）的植物群落的凋落物总氮和有机碳明显不同。我们在采样地块中遇到了59种植物，但只有四种稀有物种（即频率<5）与凋落物特征密切相关（<0.01）；在它们出现的地方，没有一种是最丰富的。这些结果突出了特定地点因素（即地理位置、干扰时间）在调节重度干扰景观中植物凋落物方面的重要性，以及凋落物特征与稀有植物物种之间的相关性。
