Vegetation restoration is the key step of desertification prevention and ecological rehabilitation in the karst region in Southwest China. A sound understanding of the vegetation composition, species diversity, and structural variation with succession is of great significance for vegetation protection and rehabilitation. However, until now, a systematic synthesis of information was not available for this region. In this study, we thoroughly collected the relevant data from the literature and unpublished data from Huanjiang Observation and Research Station of Karst Ecosystem, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We then systematically analyzed the data to determine the dynamics and driving mechanisms of plant community succession in the karst region of southwest China. To facilitate the analyses, the whole region was divided into northern subtropical, mid http: / / www.ecologica.cn subtropical, southern subtropical, and northern tropical regions. The height of the plant community and vegetation coverage increase in the mean annual temperature and precipitation or with a decline in altitude in subtropical and northern tropical regions. Along with decreasing altitude, community structure improved, however, the community density, number of families, genera, species, and diversity decreased probably due to the increase in landscape homogeneity. Along the succession from grassland to shrubland, shrub / arbor mixed woodland, and to arborland, the height of the community and the coverage increased, but density decreased for the entire region. The number of families, genera, species, and diversity increased along the succession in the northern subtropical region, but these indices reached maximum in shrub / arbor mixed woodlands in the remaining three regions. The vegetation succession and distribution pattern were the result of multiple ecological processes including species evolution (speciation, migration, and extinction) , geographical differentiation and environmental factors (e.g., geology, topography, climate, soil) , and other processes. Under the impacts of natural factors (soil, climate, topography) , human disturbances, and other ecological factors, long鄄term interactions among plant individuals resulted in spatial and temporal variation of vegetation distribution at different scales and levels. The main driving forces of vegetation succession included biological factors (microbial community, physiological ecology, and growth characteristics of species) and abiotic factors (e.g., landscape heterogeneity, topography, physical and chemical properties of the soil) and their interactions. The constructive species and key specie were variable for different successional stages and regions. With vegetation development, the climax species became richer, and the key species had a tendency to be more advanced, large in size, and long鄄living. The relationship between stability and diversity of plant communities was more complex. In general, along the community succession sequence, the stability was greater for the climax communit...
Subtropical evergreen broadleaved forests play an important role in regional carbon balance and sustainable development owing to their highest productivity, diverse ecosystem functions and complex habitat for abundant biological diversity in southern China. Spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients in subtropical forests can provide useful information for understanding the spatial pattern of plants and for explaining to some extent, coexistence mechanism of diverse tree species. To investigate spatial variations in soil nutrients and the causes of the variations, soil samples at 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm depth were collected at the center of each 10 m伊10 m quadrat within 1 hectare permanent plot of Lithocarpus glaber鄄Cyclobalanopsis glauca subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest. Soil organic C and total nitrogen (N) concentrations were determined for all samples. Based on regional variable theory and spatial analysis functions of GS + Version 9, spatial
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