Environmental and spatial contributions to tree community assembly across life stages and scales in evergreen-deciduous broadleaf karst forests,southwest China

Spatial and environmental processes are two ecological processes that have attracted considerable attention in plant community assembly,depending on sampling scale and life history.However,the processes that determine community assembly have not been studied in the karst region of southwest China.In this study,a 25-ha(500 m×500 m)monitoring plot within the subtropical climax forest in the karst region was established and canonical correspondence analysis was used to reveal the effects of topography and soil on the spatial patterns of tree community assembly.Our study suggests that spatial processes dominate species composition and the combined effects of spatial and environmental processes play an important role.Overall interpretation rate increases with enlarging the sampling scale.However,the pattern of variation partitioning was similar in different life stages.Environmental variables significantly affected species composition at different sampling sizes and life histories and had a higher interpretation rate of species composition on larger s ampling sizes.Topographic wetness index was the most important variable to explain species composition of the environmental variables.These results suggest that it is necessary to consider the relative importance of environmental and spatial factors on community assembly to better understand,conserve,and manage subtropical karst forests.

On the Karst Ecosystem

In this paper the author gives a definition of the karst ecosystem and discusses the characteristics of the karst environment and karst ecosystem and the relationship between life and the karst environment. Finally he clarifies the structure, driving force and functions of the karst system.

Impact of land cover types on the soil characteristics in karst area of Chongqing

The 26 plots including natural forestland, secondary forestland, shrub-grassland, sloping cropland, artificial forest and abandoned field, were selected to discuss the impact of land cover on the soil characteristics in the three karst districts of Chongqing. The results showed that： （1） After the vegetation turned into secondary vegetation or artificial vegetation, or reclamation, soil physical properties would be degraded. In the surface-layer soil of sloping cropland, the contents of 〉2 mm water-stable aggregates decreased obviously with apparent sandification. （2） The contents of soil organic matter and total nitrogen are controlled completely by vegetation type and land use intensity. The increasing trend is rather slow in the early days when over-reclamation is stopped and the land is converted to forest and pasture. （3） Herbaceous species increase and woody plants species decrease with the increase of land use intensity, therefore, the soil seed banks degrade more seriously. （4） The soil degradation index has been set up to describe the relative soil degradation degree under the conditions of different vegetation types. （5） Land cover has a significant effect on karst soil characteristics, land degradation in the karst ecosystem is essentially characterized by the different degradation of soil functions that serve as water banks, nutrient banks and soil seed banks.