Landscape Characteristics Of Plant Functional Types And Its Geoscience Response In Shennongjia Area

Global change and environmental change are great issues in Quaternary geology research.As an important part of ecosystem,vegetation is extremely sensitive to environmental change;the discussion of relationship between vegetation change and environment in regional scale can help to promote the understanding of global vegetation change mechanism and regional sensitivity,and it is the foundation of deciphering the relationship between large-scale vegetation and global change.The plant functional types are based on GCTE which is the core plan of IGBP.It is the combination of all the plant species that have similar responses to the same environment and interference factor,and play the similar role in the ecosystem or biota.Dividing of the plant functional types could impressively introduce characteristics and functional coefficient of small-scale vegetation response to environment change into vegetation model,biogeographic model and other models which can be used to study quantitative change of vegetation response to environment change in different scales and are helpful to better understand the vegetation response and its feedback mechanism under the global change circumstance.Even though the researches on plant functional types had made quite progress,the work of relationships between environment and regional plant traits or functional traits and still needs to be strengthened.Shennongjia area is located in the eastern section of the foreland tectonic zone of Daba Mountain.The morphological skeleton of this area is conceived by the Indosinian movement and Yanshan movement,following influenced by the quaternary climatic environment which made this area a complex regional geomorphology.The special natural geographical features of Shennongjia area are ideal places to study geology,geomorphology,biology and environment,and also provide good conditions for studying the functional traits of plants on a regional scale.The literature analysis shows that the research on plant function in Shennongjia area mainly focuses on the environmental background of plant function and the relationship of characteristics of plant function type and environment.They focus on the relationship between plant related characteristics and environment,ecological protection,environmental change,climate change and its comprehensive effect of Shennongjia.All these studies mainly focused on sporopollen analysis which reveals the relationship between the ancient climate and vegetation evolution,the stalagmite record analysis of climate change,glacier ice age landscape research and its regional influence,the relationship between soil and plant and other related research.The study on plant function type characteristics and its geoscience response of Shennongjia area in landscape perspective has not been seen so far,so it is of both great scientific value and practical value to study this issue.These values are embodied in the following aspects: the first is to detailed discuss indicative function of plant community,association plants and plant functional traits to the ecological environment in a complex terrain,and reveal the effect and significance of environment on regional vegetation pattern and better understand the effect of global change on vegetation;the second is to imply the relationship between the plant function pattern and environment of Shennongjia area under the background of global change which is helpful for the study of the global change of Quaternary.Shennongjia area locates in the northern margin of Yangzi plate and the eastern section of orogenic belt of the Qinling mountains-Daban mountain,which is the collision zone between the two blocks Yangzi in the of Qinling mountains.Factors such as tectonic movement and the Quaternary glacial chronology have great influence on plant functional in Shennongjia area,so this study can enrich the research of global change,environmental change,vegetation landscape and many other research fields;the third is that under the complex geological structure and terrain protection,vegetation in this area are influenced by the quaternary glacier is lesser,plant functional characteristics of landscape pattern and its geological effect will help to interpret barrier mechanism of complex terrain to vegetation protection in the study area.Meanwhile,this study deeply discussed plant functional landscape features Shennongjia area and explored the its relationship with the environment,which put forward effective measures of plant landscape protection and plant resources utilization,and has an important guiding significance on construction and development of geological parks,nature reserves,and national park system establishment.This paper studied the characteristics of land use type structure and evolution in Shennongjia area to discuss the characteristics of plant functional landscape pattern;use the ecological gradient and factor analysis to study the control action of environmental factors to plant functional pattern in the study area which lay the foundation of quantitative analysis of the terrain and geological factors that affect plant functional pattern.Use the method of statistical regression analysis to study the terrain factors and geological factors’ influence on plant functional structure aiming at deciphering complex terrain of vegetation’s role in the protection of vegetation in the Quaternary glacial period in the study area.This paper use literature method,fieldwork method,landscape ecological method,RS/GIS spatial analysis,mathematical statistics analysis method and other methods on the premise of land use/cover change research to explore the plant functional types and landscape features in Shennongjia area;Based on the regional response perspective of global change,this paper revealed the inner relationship between plant function and environment in Shennongjia area.This paper also constructed the research framework on the basis of elaborating the research background,scientifically defines the scope of the study area and reveals its regional characteristics,and clarified the status and progress of related research through literature analysis.The main research contents include the following aspects:Firstly,the change of land use/land cover landscape in Shennongjia area was generally analyzed,and the characteristics of vegetation landscape in this background were revealed.Secondly,it provides scientific basis for the classification and extraction of plant functional types by studying the differentiation characteristics and rules of plant growth space,and further divides the plant function type of the research area.Thirdly,based on the above work,the features of plant function landscape in Shennongjia area are revealed respectively based on the landscape perspective and the characteristics of landscape pattern and dynamic change of phenology.Fourth,from the plant functional gradient distribution of vegetation types environment(ecological),and the relationship between main environment factors and plant functional landscape characteristic,the inner relationship between geological geomorphology and plant functional landscape features was interpreted.Then,the paper mainly analyzes the geoscience response of plant functional landscape features in Shennongjia area.Through research,the following main conclusions are drawn:Firstly,the forest land are the main landscape elements in the study area,land type spatial distribution has significant own environmental characteristic,and in this 20 years land circulation mainly acted as arable land largely transferred into forest,grassland,and building land.Forest land are the main landscape elements in the study area accounting for a total area of more than 80% and it is a single-peak curve distribution at an altitude of area proportion on the altitude gradient which increase in a straight line on the slope gradient distribution and mostly concentrate in the slope,slope and half sunny slope with a strong attributes of the natural environment.The distribution of area proportion of the unutilized land has an opposite distribution of forest on altitude gradient.The wetland and artificial surface are more concentrated under the altitude of 600 meters,and the proportion of wetlands decreases with altitude,and gather in the low slope non aspect area;the sunny slope(adret)is higher than shaded slope(schattenseite),and the semi-sunny slope is higher than the semi-shaded slope.In the last ten years of the last century,arable land has been transformed into forests,grasslands and construction sites.In the first five years of this century,arable land has been transferred into forests,wetlands,grass and construction land,and other land for conversion of farmland and other land to forestland and wetlands;in the first five years of this century,arable land has been extensively transferred into forest,construction land,grassland and wetland.The change is different from nationwide arable land change direction and forest change time,mainly because of the complex regional terrain,high and step mountain.Ecology in this area is fragile,because it is in the Han River and the Yangtze River watershed which is the ecological barrier of Danjiangkou reservoir and the Three Gorges reservoir,ecological construction is the main reason for the land type conversion.Secondly,the plant functional type landscape index has distinct characteristics in space and also has spatial coupling with the distribution of environmental factors.The plant functional type landscape is characterized by strong connectivity,significant dominant species,strong homogenicity and dispersion distribution of same species.Plaque morphology has significant differences between types.On the plaque scale,the plant functional type plaques have a certain coupling of spatial differentiation;area and the circumference have some coupling.The types of plant functional advantages are obvious,the plaque shape has a type differentiation,the distribution is balanced and the separation degree is large.Evergreen coniferous forest,deciduous broad-leaved shrub and deciduous broadleaf forest are of dominant type.The spatial differentiation of plant functional patches on the landscape scale is significant,and the plaque morphology is complex which has a negative correlation between area and spatial configuration of density.Similar patches have strong connectivity and dispersion,and spatial distribution is balanced.Similar adjacency proportion,distribution and parallel index,separation index are higher overall,similar patches node proportion is big,similar plaques are linked together without adjacent,plant functional type plaque space is evenly distributed.It shows a great effectiveness of corridor and protection of biodiversity of biological species.Thirdly,changes in plant functional type growth has an increasing trend.The start and end of phenology become earlier,and its annual maximum growth become smaller which has a significant changing rate;phenological change pattern has a phenomenon of coexistence of a variety of different change trends.Phenological change pattern and plant functional type distribution pattern is separated in environmental factors change gradient which have significant correlation with environmental factors space difference.The functional space is Mosaic distribution which differs with the environmental gradient,and is significantly correlated with the environmental factors.Plant functional space distribution is significantly affected by altitude,gradient,slope direction,precipitation,extreme minimum temperature,accumulated temperature,soil profile configuration and its physical and chemical properties.The relationship between environment and Plant functional,phenological parameters distribution pattern and spatial distribution pattern has been quantitative proved that terrain and altitude affect precipitation,slope affect parent material,so that physical and chemical properties of soil are different,the location and plaque space form and configuration of plant functional types are controlled by the climatic factors which caused by altitude.Fourthly,the climate elements in the research area have significant control effect on the formation and development of the plant functional types pattern,and the relationship between vegetation and climate has a stable bifunctional feedback.Since the Quaternary period,the climate in the research area has been changed by many cycles of cold and warm,and the vegetation pattern and composition have been changed regularly with the change of climate change.Since the new world warm period,the local vegetation distribution pattern has been basically formed,and the climate fluctuation only causes the component change.Under the existing vegetation distribution pattern,vegetation growth and precipitation temperature have established long-term stable twoway feedback relationship,and the monthly variation of plant response to precipitation and temperature are different among different plant function types.Four seasons and average annual temperature and precipitation have no significant effect on plant functional phenological changes.Fifth,terrain elevation,slope and aspect are significantly correlated with plant functional type landscape indexes,which show that the terrain difference has a significant control effect on plant distribution.Regional geological and geological formations are the basis of geomorphic formation,and the elevation,slope,aspect and curvature factors significantly influence the size of the patch scale and the vegetation index of the landscape scale.Elevation and plaques area,perimeter,patch shape index,fractal dimension,the related circumscribed circle,the size of the adjacent index value were positively correlated,and negatively correlated with area of circumference ratio value,similar to that of plant functional landscape area,proportion of adjacency,spreading and parallel,Shannon ’s Diversity Index,Shannon’ s Evenness Index were positively correlated,and patch density,fractal,separating degree,the change of patch richness density showed a negative correlation.And it is opposite to regional land use intensity distribution on the elevation,which shows that natural environment restriction in the economic activities of human society promote woodland plant functional landscape pattern forming.The control effect of climatic factors on vegetation growth and distribution pattern is realized due to the difference of topographic conditions.Regional tectonic and geological functions control regional uplift and geomorphic development.The spatial correlation of mountain shadow,elevation,slope and geological structure shows that the control effect of geological action on regional topography is the most essential cause of vegetation distribution pattern.It is possible that the ground layer can influence the difference of the terrain,and the oil formation lithology can have a significant influence on the regional elevation,slope and slope direction.In conclusion,the control functions of climate factor on vegetation growth and distribution pattern of are achieved by different terrain conditions.Geological structure and the exposure strata are the motivation and basis of the formation of regional topography,vegetation growth.The response of the distribution pattern of climate factor and terrain factor is a product of geological process and geological structure based on the background of regional geological conditions.This paper is based on plant function as the classification unit rather than plant species,vegetation group or vegetation type as the research object,which is different from previous studies.This study not only provides reference for large-scale plant functional relationship with the environment,but also provides evidence to controversial classification of spatial distribution scope and cross border of vegetation types.With the analysis of geographic information system platform,this paper study the distribution and variation of plant functional and its relationship with environmental factors,according to the quantitative analysis principle of statistics influence each plant functional distribution and change of the main factors.Research results show that the research of change rate of growth and phenological parameters of plant functional types which classified by this paper not only have difference annually and within the year,but also can reflect the distribution of the differences in environmental gradient and contact from the macro distribution pattern,which help to understand macro and explain the micro samples on the ecological system of material production and provide basis for mineral cycle change.Plant functional types can reveal from multidisciplinary angles to reveal landscape characteristics,this article mainly analyzed its inner relationship with the environment(geoscience)under the background of global change which could be further comprehensive comparative studied.From inner mechanism in terms of plant functional types and its landscape characteristics’ geological response should be a coupling process of geology,geomorphology,climate,hydrology,soil and plant with a clear logical relationship.But the internal mechanism is complex,so the acknowledging and reveal of the law remains to be further.The research of the coupling process of geological – geomorphology-climate-hydrology-soil-plant research and the reveal of its pattern,and the role and influence of human activities on Shennongjia area and its forest district,and issue of comparative study of them still need to be strengthen.