Effects Of Anthropogenic Disturbance On Plant Diversity And Community Structure Of Karst Vegetation In Stone-forest Limestone Region, Yunnan Province

The stone-forest limestone region in Yunnan Province is one of the eight UNESCO Geoparks in China. The floristic elements of seed plants based on families to species in the stone-forest region were analyzed in this paper. Species diversity, community structure and soil seed bank of the four vegetation types under different disturbance degrees were also investigated in the Stone-forest Karst region in middle Yunnan. The results were as follows.1. In the region there were 889 plant species, belonging to 533 genera and 147 families, of which 846 species of 508 genera were seed plants 133 families. On the family level of the flora, the subtropical elements occupied the superiority, and the temperate families took second place. In the genus level of floristic elements, the tropical genera were the most and the temperate ones accounted for about one third of all genera. This indicates the distinct subtropical character of this flora. In the species level of this flora, there were 328 endemic species of China, occupying 40%, then, East Asia and Tropical Asia species were the most. From family to species, the seed plant flora of the stone-forest region had the natures of subtropical and typical elements.2. The community structure varied along the anthropogenic disturbance gradient...