Impact of invasion of pine wood nematode on the growth of dominant shrub Pleioblastus amarus in Pinus massoniana communities

When pine trees are invaded by pine wilt diseases, the severely infected pine trees will die and fall down, or they will be removed when found to be damaged by the disease. It gives rise to the invasion of other species in these empty niches originally oc- cupied by pine trees, i.e., competing surrounding trees or understory shrubs will invade the empty niches during the following years. As a result, the spatial distribution and pattern of the main tree species in a pine forest will change, and a niche variety in the main population will occur. In the end, the direction of the succession and restoration of the pine forest ecosystem will be affected. In our study, a Pinus massoniana forest with the dominant shrub, Pleioblastus amarus, was invaded by pine wood nematode and was clear cut. Selecting this community as our research object, we studied the effect of the invasion of the pine wood nematode on the growth of the dominant shrub, P. amarus, in this Pinus massoniana forest. Our results show that, after the attacked pine trees were removed, the niche was occupied by Pleioblastus amarus and other shrubs, which benefited the growth ofP. amarus to its climax. Growth of P. amarus at the climax stage was greater compared with the unhealthy pine forest and the control group.

Differences in arthropod communities between island and inland Masson pine forests infested by pine wilt disease in Zhejiang Province

The invasion of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus （pine wood nematode, PWN） carried by Monochamus alternatus predominately attacks Masson pine （Pinus massoniana） forests and causes great economic losses in China. In this study, we assessed whether the effect of the invasion of PWN is different between island and inland forests. Arthropods were sampled in Fuyang （inland） and Zhoushan （island） counties in Zhejiang Province with sweep netting and light traps at four plots. During two field periods （May to June 2004 and September to October 2005） a total of 21,916 insects, representing 384 species belonging to 99 families and 15 orders, were collected in the sample plots from the island, whereas, from the inland forest a total of 29,262 insects, representing 308 species belonging to 96 families and 13 orders, were found. A hierarchical cluster analysis （HCA） and one-way ANOVA, based on the composition of different arthropod guilds, were performed. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the composition of arthropod communities at the family level between inland and island. But these two habitats had a significant effect on the composition of species, individuals, sub-communities and energy class levels. Statistically, the composition of the two orders, Lepidoptera and Diptera, in the two habitats were significantly different.