Plant Diversity Status And Conservation Strategy Of Beijing Under The Impact Of Urbanization

Urbanization is one of the primary causes for the declining of biodiversity, therefore it is urgent to pay extra attention to the biodiversity conservation in urban area and in course of urbanization. Beijing has experienced the most constant urban sprawl in the past three decades. Along with the fast expanding population and economic, the urban sprawl had brought high pressure to the environment and biodiversity. To effectively conserve the biodiversity of Beijing, a clear knowledge of its status quo is pressing needed. We studied the status quo of vascular plant biodiversity by integrating field investigation and analysis of former literatures. Threats to Beijing's plant diversity and their alleviating methods were also discussed. The main content of this study are as followings:1) The main natural ecosystems in Beijing include forest ecosystem, shrub ecosystem, meadow ecosystem and wetland ecosystem. Due to strong disturbance, most communities of theses ecosystems are secondary. While the area of forest ecosystem is enlarged, meadow ecosystem and wetland ecosystem are severely degraded.2) A database of the vascular plant diversity of Beijing was established. Beijing has high plant diversity due to its geodiversity, occupying about 2276 known vascular plant species. However, its endemism is very low, with only five species being regarded as strictly endemic to Beijing. There are 25 Chinese National Priority Protected plant species distributed in Beijing, including Glycine soja, Phellodendron amurense, Tilia amurensis and 22 wild orchidaceous plants. Some 40 species are threatened according our investigation.