Distribution patterns of planted-shrubs of different restoration ages in artificial sand-fixing regions in the southeastern Tengger Desert

作者：MeiLing Liu,Ning Chen,RuiQing Zhu

摘要：Plant density and spatial distribution in artificial vegetation is obviously initialized at the planting stage. Plant dynamics and spatial pattern may change over time as the result of interactions between individual plants and habitats, but whether it’s applied for desert shrubs in artificial sand-fixing regions remains unknown. Here we examined changes in plant density and distribution patterns of three shrubs(Artemisia ordosica Krasch, Caragana korshinskii Kom, and Hedysarum scoparium Fisch.) in different regions, which have been restored for 27, 32 and 50 years(R27, R32, R50), respectively. The vegetation analysis shows that A. ordosica was the dominated species across the 3 restoration regions. The density of A. ordosica and H. scoparium show a significant increase from R27 to R32, then decreased in R50. The density of C. korshinskii was low in R32 and R50, lower in R27. The variance-to-mean ratio(VMR) was used to characterize spatial distribution patterns to fit the observed densities of the three shrubs by frequency. A. ordosica and C. korshinskii both show significantly clumped distributions in three restoration regions. H. scoparium show a uniform distribution in R27 and R50, but a clumped distribution in R32. These results show that A. ordosica seems to be more adaptable in revegetated desert areas compared to C. korshinskii and H. scoparium. Pattern analysis suggests a successive replacement of C. korshinskii, which had low proportions of survived shrubs, by the dominant A. ordosica. This study contributes to the understanding of the distribution patterns of shrubs plants in revegetation projects in arid desert areas.

發文機構：Key Laboratory of Stress Physiology and Ecology in Cold and Arid Regions Shapotou Desert Research&Experiment Station School of Life Science Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources Exploitation and Application of Gansu Province

關鍵詞：RESTORATIONSHRUBSdensityspatialpattern

分類號： TB6[一般工業技術—制冷工程]