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Community structure and soil and water conservation benefits of manmade forests inDianchi  Lake watershed, Yunnan Province of Southwest China.

HU Chang-xing1,2, PENG Ming-chun1, WANG Chong-yun1**, DU Jian-hai1, LI Bo3, CHEN Zhen-Liang4, FU Qi1   

  1. (1Institute of Ecology and Geobotany, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China; 2Yunnan Science and Technology Museum, Kunming 650031, China; 3Resources and Environment College of Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China
    ; 4Fujan Huaxia Institute of Architectural Design, Fuzhou 350004, China)
  • Online:2012-12-10 Published:2012-12-10

Abstract: A plot investigation was made on the community structure of five main man-made forests (Cupressus duclouxiana, Eucalyptus globules, Acacia dealbara, Pinus armandii, and P. yunnanensis plantations) in the Dianchi Lake watershed of Yunnan Province, Southwest China. A functional evaluation index system of soil and water conservation, which consisted of four factors (vegetation, litter, soil, and landform), was established. Based on the normalization and weighting of 8 selected indices, and using ideal point comprehensive evaluation method, the soil and water conservation benefits of the plantations were evaluated. The importance value (IV) of the dominant species in the five plantations was 89.69 for C. duclouxiana, 74.27 for E. globulus, 96.35 for A. dealbara, 84.93 for P. armandii, and 65.65 for P. yunnanensis. Among the five plantations, the species diversity in different layers of E. globules and P. yunnanensis plantations was shrub layer > herb layer > tree layer, and that in different layers of C. duclouxiana, A. dealbara, and P. armandii plantations was herb layer > shrub layer > tree layer. P. yunnanensis plantation had the highest overall community diversity, followed by P. armandii, E. globules, C. louxiana, and A. dealbara plantation. The soil and water conservation benefits of the plantations were  P. unnanensis > P. armandii  > C. duclouxiana > E. globulus > A. dealbara, which revealed that native tree species had more advantages in soil and water conservation. There existed obvious differences in the species diversity and soil and water conservation benefits between different plantations, and thus, it would be needed to select suitable tree species and their reasonable combinations for the local sites to improve their ecosystem functioning and to control soil and water loss.