Dominant Species Abundance, Vertical Structure and Plant Diversity Response to Nature Forest Protection in Northeastern China: Conservation Effects and Implications

Abstract

The conservation of species diversity and improvement of forest structure are essential roles of the Natural Reserve Policy and the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP) in China. However, the long-term effects of NFPP are still not well-defined, and a natural reserve (Liangshui) and surrounding region were surveyed as a proxy of NFPP for approaching the protection effects. Our results showed that long-term conservation significantly altered the dominant species in the herb layer (80% of species), followed by shrub (58%) and tree layers (50%); there was a 1.6-8.0-fold increase in abundance in Corylus shrubs, Acer trees and Carex grass, but a 1.3-10.0-fold abundance decrease in larch trees, Athyrium herbs and Lonicera shrubs. In contrast, tree species diversity and distribution evenness increased by 31% and 23.4% in the reserve, respectively. Forest protection in the reserve also led to the forest structural alteration with the observation of larger-sized trees and shorter herbs, but relatively sparse forests (smaller tree density). Structural equation modeling manifested that the reserve directly altered forest structure, at a coefficient of 0.854, nearly two-fold higher than its impact on diversity (0.459) and dominant species (−0.445). The most affected parameters were plant size (trees and herbs) and tree density related to forest structure, tree diversity, herb richness and evenness for diversity traits, and Oxalidaceae and Rosaceae for dominant species. This study provides basic data that can be used to evaluate the impact of the nature reserve in NE China, and these findings can be used to guide the implementation of NFPP in the long-term in the future.

Soil aggregation accounts for the mineral soil organic carbon and nitrogen accrual in broadleaved forests as compared to that of coniferous forests in Northeast China: Cross‐sites and multiple species comparisons

“…(Wang et al, 2011;Zhou, 1997). Over 100 years of timber production and farmland reclamation have greatly changed the forest composition and have also sharply decreased timber storage in this region (Shi & Li, 2016;Wang, Yu, et al, 2020;Yu et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2000). Moreover, forest composition in Northeast China will be altered by decreases in coniferous forest area (20-30%) and increases in broadleaved forests area (70-80%) over the next 100 years (Cheng & Yan, 2008;Wang, Zhou, et al, 2017) (Table 1).…”

Allometric relationships, functional differentiations, and scaling of growth rates across 151 tree species in China

“…Additionally, in line with our expectations, we found obvious evidence to suggest that tree allometry varies dramatically due to differences in adultstature with the larger‐statured species which had higher maximum heights (i.e., Gompertz parameter H max ), inflection sizes (i.e., Gompertz parameter d H ), and a lower allometric growth curve (i.e., Gompertz parameter k ) indicating a strategy that maximizes vertical growth. Adult species stature was also shown to influence tree allometry for tree species from central Japan (Aiba and Nakashizuka 2009), the United States (Ducey 2012, Hulshof et al 2015), southeastern Liberia (Poorter et al 2003), peninsular Malaysia (Iida et al 2011), Southwest China (Fan et al 2012, Wang et al 2020), and northeastern China (Wang et al 2017). This result agrees with previous studies that concluded that life history and resource partitioning were predominant in shaping community composition (Subedi et al 2019) and that emphasized functional traits and light demand as key traits determining community assembly (Bohlman and O'Brien 2006, Loranger et al 2016, Subedi et al 2019).…”

Relating macrofungal diversity and forest characteristics in boreal forests in China: Conservation effects, inter‐forest‐type variations, and association decoupling

“…This criterion was used to select the most critical variables for macrofungal conservation in theory. Details of the SEM method can be found in previous publications (Wang, Zhong, et al., 2017 ; Wang et al., 2020 ; Zhong et al., 2017 ).…”

“…In this study, we also found conservation can induce the observation of more giant trees, sparse density by fewer tree species, together with shorter but higher coverage of shrubs and much fewer herb species. In a temperate forest 900 km southeastern to this study, the conservation effect for plants is characterized as significant increases in tree sizes with great changing (plus or minus) species abundances (Wang et al, 2020).…”

“…In the middle of the conservation and the forest types, a significantly higher value in the medium conservation intensities or the middle stage of the succession indicated a middlepeaked pattern, too. (Wang, Zhong, et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2020;Zhong et al, 2017).…”