Community Characteristics And Evaluation Of Medicinal Plant Communities In Yang Xian

In this study, we choose Eucommia, dogwood, magnolia bark, ginkgo, forsythia, Lagenaria, cassia, bellflower, skullcap 16 medicinal plant communities as the main objects in Qinba mountain Yangxian, through field vegetation surveys and indoor sample analysis, researching community structure and diversity of species of medicinal plants vegetations combined with the dynamic changes of soil physical and chemical properties in different configuration and evaluating of their ecological benefits to elect the best configuration mode with economic and ecological conservation benefits, which play an important role in strengthening the local economic construction and social development. The main conclusions are as follows: 1. Analysis of species composition in Yang XianThe plant vegetations were including 47 families, 86 genera and 96 species mainly composed of herbaceous species, which take the largest proportion is Asteraceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae and legumes. Billing Division of Community has the predominance in the number of species and genus, which occupies 68.08% of total families, 37.21% of total genera and 33.33% of total species, respectively. Cosmopolitan takes up the largest in distributed branch. 2. Analysis of community species diversity in different vegetation types in Yang XianThe herb layer species community of Catsiatora, Platycodon grandiflorus, Scutellaria baicalensis, Forsythia suspense, Forsythia suspensa- Platycladus orientalis, Chaenomeles cathayensis, Eucommia ulmoides, Ginkgo biloba and Macrocarpium officinale were greater than woody species in Yang Xian, which can be regarded as the most developed layer. Dominant species are defined as the important value of the largest species in each community. On the whole community level, each layer of Eucommia ulmoides community structure is relatively complex, which is higher than other communities. Compared with herb community, the species diversity of Eucommia ulmoides, Forsythia suspense increased significantly, whose community structure was more complicated. The correlation between environmental factors and the diversity index is low. The correlation between slope and three diversity indexes is positive, while there is no correlation between other environmental factors and diversity indexs.The number of herbaceous layer species was significantly greater than arborous layer in each Macrocarpium officinale vegetation species in Yang Xian. Different species had low similarity, the each layer structure of Eucommia ulmoides-Magnolia officinalis, Macrocarpium officinale-Magnolia officinalis mixed vegetation is more complex than pure forest, and the low age of Magnolia officinalis was more complex than the middle age. The species with maximum importance value of the respective communities are edificatory. Along with the forest age growth, the indexes of Simpson, Shannon-Wiener, Pielou has gradually decreasing trend. The species diversity of mixed forests was higher than pure forest. 3. Soil fertility assessment of different communities in Yang XianThe soil moisture content and unit weigh increased with increasing soil depth, whereas soil organic matter, total N, available N, available P, and available K decreased. The content of total P and total K had no significant changes. Between different communities the soil properties were significantly different. The content of soil organic matter and total nutrients was higher in Forsythia suspense, Eucommia ulmoides and Macrocarpium officinale than that of Catsiatora, Platycodon grandiflorus, Scutellaria baicalensis, Forsythia suspensaPlatycladus orientalis, Chaenomeles cathayensis and Ginkgo biloba, but the content of soil available nutrients was lower than other community types. The content of soil total K was too low suggesting that total K has become the limiting factor of medicinal plant growth. The values of soil quality of Eucommia ulmoides, Macrocarpium officinale, Scutellaria baicalensis and Forsythia suspense was much better than that of Platycodon grandiflorus, Ginkgo biloba and Forsythia suspensa- Platycladus orientalis. They can become the dominant species of the reforestation community.Soil nutrients of seven communities in same soil layers had significant differences(p<0.05). In addition, these parameters in different soil layers were also different remarkably. The soil organic matter, total N, available N, available P and available K of seven communities decreased with soil depth in the profile distribution, however total P and total K did not show any specific characteristics. The comprehensive evaluation showed the soil integrated fertility index of 4-years old Magnolia officinalis was the highest among seven communities, while the soil integrated fertility index of 11-years old Magnolia officinalis was the lowest. With the growth of plantation, soil fertility of Magnolia officinalis communities had declined. The soil fertility of Macrocarpium officinale-Magnolia officinalis was much better than that of 7-years old Magnolia officinalis, whereas the soil fertility of Eucommia ulmoides-Magnolia officinalis was lower than that of 4-years old Magnolia officinalis. Therefore, Macrocarpium officinale-Magnolia officinalis could improve soil fertility in Yang Xian. 4. The best configuration mode filter of medicinal plants communities in Yang XianThe comprehensive quality of Eucommia ulmoides and Forsythia suspensa was higher than that of herbaceous communities. The comprehensive quality of Macrocarpium officinale-Magnolia officinalis was significantly higher than that of 7a Magnolia officinalis, but the comprehensive quality of Eucommia ulmoides-Magnolia officinalis was lower than that of Eucommia ulmoides and 4a Magnolia officinalis overall quality. In view of species diversity and soil fertility, planting Eucommia ulmoides was the best configuration mode in Yang Xian for the ecological restoration.In summary, the species were richness and widely distributed of medicinal plants. There is a certain variation of the diversity of medicinal plant species and soil properties. Establishing evaluation index system of medicinal plants in Yang Xian was a highly targeted. The result was scientific and reliable. From a view of ecological rehabilitation and economic development, selecting Eucommia ulmoides was the best configuration mode in Yang Xian for the ecological restoration. This provides a theoretical basis for the establishment improvement and ecological restoration demonstration of Yang Xian. It was also of great importance to the strengthening of local economic construction and social development, and ecological environment construction.