| Conventional assessment of wetland conservation/restoration effects, involving monitoring of multiple variables and requires interdisciplinary expertise in biology, environmental sciences and sociology, is usually costly and difficult to obtain consistent results. As China is putting huge efforts into restoring degraded wetlands, such as National Wildlife and Nature Reserves Construction Master Plan, National Wetland Protection Project ect, fast and cost-effective methodologies for quantitative assessment of the conservation effects are crucial and in great need.Floristic Quality Assessment Index (FQAI), as proven to be a successful indicator of flora’s ecological conservatism, can be used to monitor the rehabilitation progress in wetland conservation.In Yunqiao, a former paddy field recently rehabilitated to forested wetland for three years in Southwest China, FQAI was used as an ecological indicator to monitor the progress of rehabilitation with repeat yearly samplings of species information along four parallel-arranged fixed line-transects in the wetland. The conservative values of each species were calculated based on evaluation of all wetland plants in the floristic area. The effectiveness of FQAI was tested with pressure-state-response (PSR) model, which uses comprehensive indicators including parameters for water quality, use of chemical fertilizer, and flora information, land uses and conservation inputs.The results of wetland plants’ coefficient of conservatism (CCmean) in Sichuan basin showed that CCmeam of pteridophyte was 1.52 higher than that of spermatophyte, and were 4.84±0.46 and 3.32+0.11 respectively. In the species list of wetland species,303 or 47.5% of species had the CC value between 1-2 score, while only 5%of the species had the value over 9. CC values of 40%pteridophyte ranged between 6-8 scores, while 31 out 32 cosmopolitan species (CC=0) are spermatophyte including Aster subulatus, Conyza Canadensis, Sonchus oleraceus. Plants with high degrees of fidelity only accounted for 4.0%, like Oymnotheca chinensis, Impatiens brevipes, Corydalis amplisepala var.cristata.Field surveys in Yunqiao wetland recorded 111,87 and 127 plant species identified in the years of 2011,2012 and 2013 respectively. And (common species) constituted 53.2%, 50.6% and 50.4% in 2011,2012 and 2013 respectively in the species composition. (2) There was no significant changes of plant species richness between 2011 and 2013, and (3) No clear trends were presented by the species diversity indices (Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson index, Pielou index) over the three year’s sampling period, while the mean coefficient of conservatism (CCmean) and the FQAI increased significantly (P< 0.05). From the period of 2011 to 2012 and 2012 to 2013, saw an increase CCmem by 4.7% and 1.9%, while FQAI increased by 14.3%and 17.8% respectively. From 2011 to 2013, There was CCmean and FQAI increased by 6.7%and 34.7% respectively.The results suggest that FQAI be a promising and effective ecological indicator for rapid and quantitative measurement of vegetative rehabilitation effects in wetlands. Because FQAI emphasizes on the nativeness, endemism and ecological conservatism of the wetland flora, adoption of this indicator will therefore help to promote the importance of natural ecological process and use of native species in wetland restoration. |
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