Response strategies of woody seedlings to shading and watering over time after topsoil translocation in dry-hot karst region of China

Self Cite

Road construction and strip mining in mountainous regions inevitably causes the destruction of vegetation and soil, leading to large ranges of exposed slopes. Although soil spray-sowing has become a promising method to accelerate community assembly in humid regions, the application of microbial fertilizers and shading in slope recovery during soil spray-sowing are rarely reported in dry-hot valleys. This study compared the effectiveness among artificial seeding, arch column + planting bags, and soil spray-sowing by slope restoration trials in the Yuanjiang dry-hot valley, southwest China. Additionally, we explored the effect of slope degrees, shade, and microbial fertilizers on seedling survival and growth after soil spray-sowing. Results indicated that soil spray-sowing displayed better species survival and growth performance than artificial seeding and arch column + planting bags. The richness, density, and height of seedlings dropped dramatically with the increasing of slope degrees after soil spray-sowing, especially when the slope degree was greater than 1. Although shading observably improved the species density, it inhibited the growth of Albizia julibrissin and Crotalaria pallida. Moreover, microbial fertilizers Penicillium chrysogenum and Bacillus aryabhattai markedly enhanced the density and growth of species Azadirachta Indica, Cajanus cajan, Indigofera cassioides, and Sophora xanthanth. Soil spray-sowing, combined with shading and microbial fertilizers, contributes to species survival and growth when the slope degree is less than 1.73 and the soil spray-sowing process coincides with the rainy season, which provides the theoretical basis and technical support for ecological restoration in the dry-hot river valley.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Fertilizers and Shading Contribute to the Vegetation Assembly and Restoration of Steep-Slope after Soil Spray-Sowing in the Yuanjiang Dry-Hot Valley Region

Zhao,

Li,

et al. 2024

Self Cite

“…In the expansion stage (2016-2023), the words "forest ecosystem", "agricultural products", "ecological industry", and "ecological products" are the main trends in the control of KD, with a focus on breaking through the formation mechanism and process of derived ecological industries [27,45,52,[122][123][124]. Collaborative development of forest ecosystem services and ecological industries is conducive to balancing ecological remediation and economic development [125][126][127][128]. It has become one of the highlights and hot spots of KD control and the ecological industry for discussion in terms of the words "afforestation effect", "ecosystem services", and "eco-products realization" at this stage [59,[129][130][131][132][133][134].…”

Section: Pivotal Research Clustersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The author group that includes Shijie Wang, Xiaoyong Bai, and Zhenming Zhang, among others, is studying the driving mechanism and evolution process of KD, as well as its relationship with landforms, lithology, precipitation, and population [208,209]. The author group that includes Kelin Wang, Yuemin Yue, and Chunhua Zhang is studying karst landscape patterns and dynamic changes in KD, forest ecosystems, and service functions [33,127,189,191].…”

Section: Main Publishing Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Situation of Karst Desertification Research Based on Forest Ecology

Zhang,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Karst desertification (KD) is a major ecological and environmental problem threatening human survival and development in karst areas. In order to explore the research situation and development trend of KD based on forest ecology, this paper provides a systematic literature review based on the CNKI and WoS databases, which involves search, appraisal, synthesis, and analysis. We performed a statistical and visual analysis of 2955 studies acquired between 1 January 1995 and 30 June 2023, including the time distribution of the studies, hot research trends, pivotal research clusters, literature co-citations, main publishing trends, and keyword bursts. The results show the following. (1) The literature shows a fluctuating growth trend, and the research trends are divided into accumulation, development, and expansion stages. (2) The pivotal research clusters comprised three major aspects: study area and method, driving and genetic mechanisms, and control technology and models. (3) KD research forms a China-centered research network, dominated by institutions and scholars in southwestern China. (4) Future research needs to solve a series of related scientific issues and technological needs for forest ecosystem function optimization, ecological product supply capacity enhancement, ecological product value realization, ecological industry formation, and rural revitalization in KD control. The purpose of this paper is to reveal research trends relating to KD and highlight the future direction of KD research and control.

“…In general, these plants belong to acquisitive strategy plants [39]. A larger canopy and tree height are conducive to plant resource occupation, which is a comprehensive reflection of plant competitiveness (e.g., photosynthesis and canopy interception) [41,42]. This strategy usually occurs in established species, and plays an important role in the stability of community structures and functions [41,42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A larger canopy and tree height are conducive to plant resource occupation, which is a comprehensive reflection of plant competitiveness (e.g., photosynthesis and canopy interception) [41,42]. This strategy usually occurs in established species, and plays an important role in the stability of community structures and functions [41,42]. However, few studies have comprehensively considered the trade-off between these functional traits as plant strategies in the process of community assembly in arid regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific Trait Variation Regulates Biodiversity and Community Productivity of Shrublands in Drylands

Du,

Tian,

Zhao

et al. 2024

Intraspecific variation (Intra-V) has played an important role in determining the responses of ecosystem functions to climate change. However, its specific role in the regulation of ecosystem functions during community assembly is less investigated. In this study, we conducted a transect survey in northwest China and determined different plant functional types, namely resource-conservative, medium, and resource-acquisitive strategies, which describe resource-use strategies of plants in multi-functional dimensions. Plant functional traits including canopy, wood density (WD), height, specific leaf area (SLA), and leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations were determined. Ecological filters, including external filtering (assembly processes at the regional scale), internal filtering (assembly processes within a certain community), and functional redundancy, were employed to examine plant environment interactions. We found that with the decrease in environmental pressure, dominant shrub plants changed from conservative to acquisition species in drylands. Specifically, a benign environment (such as stable and adequate precipitation, loose soil, and increased acid deposition) significantly increased plant mean traits, such as SLA and WD of shrubs, especially for conservative strategy plants. In addition, a benign environment mainly reduced the functional redundancy of SLA (FRedSLA) by strengthening internal filtering and, ultimately, increased aboveground biomass but decreased species richness. Our results suggest that conservative strategy plants with stronger adaptability to the external environment may exhibit more competitive advantages and play a more important role in community construction under future climate scenarios of gradual warming and wetting in northwest China. Our results also revealed that trait-based Intra-V may be a more reasonable ecological filter than plant mean traits for predicting the structure and function of dryland ecosystems.