Screening trial for the suitable plant species growing on sand dunes in the alpine valley and its recovery status in the Yarlung Zangbo River basin of Tibet, China

Abstract

There was a total of 273 697. 54 hm 2 of aeolian sandy lands in the Yarlung Zangbo River basin of Tibet in 2008. The fast development of aeolian sand lands has caused immense damages to its social and economic development, it is urgent to choose appropriate plant species for vegetation restoration of the moving sand dunes in the basin. Thus, we carried out a continuous trial of the field artificial seeding on sand dunes in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River basin, the main testing plant species included the northern China忆 s psammophyte species and the Tibet忆 s native species. The germination, emergence, growth processes and reproduction of the testing plant species were observed from 2008 to 2011, based on these, the best suitable species on sand dunes in the alpine valley were determined, which could be used to guide the ongoing vegetation recovery and reconstruction on aeolian sandy land in the studied area. The results showed that the plant height and plant size growth of northern China忆s psammophyte species were larger than that of native psammophyte species in the field artificial seeding trial, and the species such as Artemisia sphaerocephala, Hedysarum scoparium, Calligonum mongolicum, H. fruticosum var. mongolicum and Sophora moorcroftiana all exhibited good adaptability to