College of Forestry, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
Inner Mongolia Academy of Forestry Sciences, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
PLoS One. 2024 Jun 6;19(6):e0304204. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304204. eCollection 2024.
Vegetation construction is a key process for restoring and rehabilitating degraded ecosystems. However, the spatial pattern and process of native plants colonized by different vegetation restoration methods in semi-arid sandy land are poorly understood. In this study, two artificial vegetation restoration patterns (P1: row belt restoration pattern of Salix matsudana with low coverage; P2: a living sand barrier pattern of Caryopteris mongolica with low coverage) were selected to analyze the spatial distribution pattern and interspecific association of the colonizing native shrubs. The effects of the two restoration models on the spatial patterns of the main native semi-shrubs of the colonies (i.e., Artemisia ordosica and Corethrodendron lignosum var. leave) were studied using single variable and bivariate transformation point pattern analysis based on Ripley's L function. Our results showed that two restoration patterns significantly facilitated the establishment of A. ordosica and C. lignosum var. leave, with their coverage reaching 17.04% and 22.62%, respectively. In P1, the spatial distribution pattern of colonial shrubs tended to be a random distribution, and there was no spatial correlation between the species. In P2, the colonial shrub aggregation distribution was more dominant, and with the increase in scale, the aggregation distribution changed to a random distribution, whereas the interspecific association was negatively correlated. The differences in the spatial distribution patterns of colonized native semi-shrubs in these two restoration patterns could be related to the life form of planted plants, configuration methods, biological characteristics of colonized plants, and intra- and interspecific relationships of plants. Our results demonstrated that the nurse effect of artificially planted vegetation in the early stage of sand ecological restoration effectively facilitated the near-natural succession of communities. These findings have important implications for ecological restoration of degraded sandy land in the semi-arid region of northern China.
植被建设是恢复和重建退化生态系统的关键过程。然而，对于不同植被恢复方法在半干旱沙地上定植的乡土植物的空间格局和过程，人们了解甚少。本研究选择了两种人工植被恢复模式（P1：柳树带状低覆盖度修复模式；P2：低覆盖度丁香活沙障模式），分析了定植乡土灌木的空间分布格局和种间关联。基于 Ripley's L 函数，利用单变量和双变量转换点格局分析方法，研究了两种恢复模型对种群主要乡土半灌木（即油蒿和柠条锦鸡儿）空间格局的影响。结果表明，两种恢复模式显著促进了油蒿和柠条锦鸡儿的建立，其盖度分别达到 17.04%和 22.62%。在 P1 中，灌木种群的空间分布格局趋于随机分布，种间不存在空间相关性。在 P2 中，灌木聚集分布更为明显，随着尺度的增加，聚集分布逐渐变为随机分布，而种间关联呈负相关。两种恢复模式下定植乡土半灌木的空间分布格局的差异可能与种植植物的生活型、配置方式、定植植物的生物学特性以及植物种内和种间关系有关。本研究结果表明，人工植被在沙区生态恢复初期的护育作用，有效地促进了群落的近自然演替。这些发现对半干旱地区北方退化沙土地的生态恢复具有重要意义。
