Welcome to Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology! Today is Share:

Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Characteristics of seed rain on abandoned slopes in the hilly-gullied Loess Plateau, Northwest China.

YU Wei-jie1, CHEN Yu2,3, JIAO Ju-ying1,4, WANG Dong-li2, WANG Zhi-jie4, WEI Yan-hong4, KOU Meng4, Yin Qiu-long5   

  1. (1State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yang
    ling 712100, Shaanxi, China; 2College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China; 3Monitoring Center Station of Soil and Water Conservation, Haihe River Water Conservancy Commission, Tianjin 300170, China; 4Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China; 5College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China)
  • Online:2015-02-18 Published:2015-02-18

Abstract: The objective of this study was to analyze the dynamic characteristics of seed rain on abandoned slopes in the hilly-gullied Loess Plateau region and identify the relationship between seed rain and standing vegetation. Three abandoned slopes were chosen as sampling sites in Zhifanggou watershed. Thirty traps were installed at each site to collect seed rain from October 2010 to April 2013. Standing vegetation was surveyed to identify dominant species in August 2011 and 2012, respectively. Thirtyseven species belonging to seventeen families were identified in the seed rain, and the dominant species, i.e., Lespedeza davurica, Astragalus scaberrimus, Setaria viridis, Cleistogenes squarrosa, Stipa bungeana, Bothriochloa ischcemum, Artemisia scoparia, A. gmelinii, and Heteropappus altaicus, took up to 95.8% of the total seed rain. Three species in seed rain were not found in the standing vegetation. The Sorensen similarity index between seed rain and standing vegetation was 0.77. Seed rain densities were 3737 and 6449 seeds·m-2 in May 2011-April 2012 and May 2012-April 2013, respectively, and alternate bearing existed. During the study period, seed rain from different positions varied from 3853 to 37923 seeds·m-2 and belonged to 7-15 species. The results indicated the space limitation of seed dispersal. Seed rain densities were in the middle of the pack compared with similar ecosystems in other studies. High temporal and spatial heterogeneity of seed rain was observed because of rainfall, micro-topography and so on.