Study On The Effect Of Ecological Rehabilitation Project In Lishan Shunwangping Subalpine Meadow, Shanxi

Lishan National Nature Reserve is the largest nature reserve with24,800hm2area totally and is known as "rich plant and animal resource in Shanxi". Shunwangping Subalpine meadow is one of the important components of the ecosystems in this nature reserve. The species diversity, classification and ordination of plant communities after the ecological rehabilitate project of Shunwangping subalpine meadow, were studied by the methodology of numerical ecology. Changes of community species composition, structure and species diversity with environmental gradients were analyzed to propose a scientific basis for the conservation and utilization of the subalpine meadow.Based on200plots from the field, Shunwangping subalpine meadow communities were classified into14associations by TWINSPAN. With the results of the DCA ordination, the dominant species were significant different distributed in the communities in different altitude gradient. Dominance of androphile reflected the degree of human disturbance. With the greater strength interference, androphile got the higher dominance degree. With a change of altitude, the dynamic of plots ordination corresponded well with the species ordination, which indicated that the dominant species in the distribution pattern could determine the distribution pattern of plant community types.According to the a diversity index measured of Shunwangping subalpine meadow communities, the level of community diversity was increased after the ecological rehabilitate project with an impact of androphile lessening. The diversity index of transects near the trail was higher than before, which demonstrated that the trail-laying played an important role in reducing the human disturbance. The species richness index (R) showed a rising trend with the increasing distance from plots to the trail. There was not a significant different for the evenness index (E) between different transects, suggested that vegetation restored well after the ecological rehabilitate projects. The β diversity index from2100m above sea level (a. s.1.) showed an increasing trend and reached the maximum at2200-2250m a. s.1, while the index deceased with the increasing altitude beyond2250m a. s.1. due to the large area with small slope topographic features.After the ecological rehabilitate project, the degree of soil erosion was controlled gradually and the community coverage (i.e. the number of dominant species) increased significantly. For the next step of the rehabilitate process, both of the soil structure change and moderate biological interference increase should be taken in some key areas. Besides, the strategies of management and supervision for the nature reserves need to be strengthened by the government, reducing human disturbance to the natural communities.