The Functional Traits And Diversities Of Woody Plants In Southwest Of Hubei

In southwest Hubei province,due to the special natural geographical conditions of north latitude and high altitude,which adapt to the low temperature environment,there is a lot of deciduous plant species,forming a typical subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest,preserving large areas of original natural forests and secondary forests.Wild plant resources are extremely rich,which with ancient,complex flora and high biodiversity.Southwest of Hubei is the core area of eastern Sichuan-western Hubei among the endemic centers of Chinese seed plants and the key region of biodiversity conservation with priority in china.Exploring the plant diversities and functional traits on a regional scale can not only reveal community characteristics,biodiversity,origin and evolution of flora,but also has important reference values in biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration.However,systematic research on biodiversity,plant functional traits in the whole southwest of Hubei still need supplement.Based on Flora of Enshi,combining with field investigation statistics in natural reserves,Flora of China and professional network data platforms.Species diversity,floristic components were analyzed,11 plant functional traits including growth type,potential maximum height,leaf,fruit traits and phenological stage of woody plants in Southwest of Hubei were studied.The main results are as follows:There were 1 357 woody plant species in Southwest of Hubei,belonging to 299 genera and 109 families.Among them there were 1312 species in angiosperm(consisted of dicotyledon and monocotyledon with 1363 species and 49 species respectively)and 45 species in gymnosperm,Consisted of 673 shrub,613 tree and 71 woody liana species.Which showed abundant plant resources and high biodiversity.Angiosperms are the main advantages of woody plants,and the majority of angiosperms are dicotyledonous plants.There were many species in Rosaceae,Leguminosae,Lauraceae and Rubus L.,Ilex L.,Acer Linn.In terms of the composition of the families,the fewer species families(2-9 families)accounted for the most,with 45 families accounting for 41.28%.The number of species in the family was the most in the major species family(20-49 species),with 645 woody plants,accounting for 47.53% of the total.In terms of the composition of the genus,the number of monotypic genera was the largest(179 genera),accounting for 44.86% of the total genus,The largest number of species(476 species)were in large genera(10 species or more),accounting for 35.08% of the total species.The superiority of large families and genera is great.The number of families and genera with single species and fewer species were large,families and genera differentiated a lot.There were 89 species,66 genera,41 families in rare and endangered woody plants.Consisted of 8 first degree national protective plants,31 second degree national protective plants,24 endemic plants from china,3 extremely small population species and 71 endangered species verified by International Union for Conservation of Nature(4 CR species).Many species were included by more than 1 protection list,such as Metasequoia glyptostroboides,Ginkgo biloba,Camptotheca acuminata,Michelia wilsonii and so on.Rare and endangered resources are abundant with high protection value.Families and genera have an ancient origin,many endemic and relic species exists.The natural flora of woody plants in Southwest of Hubei were divided into 14 areal-types and 12 variations in families,mainly in Pantropic distributions with 34 families.Flora of family had more relation to Tropical elements,comprised 54 families,accounting for 62.07% of the total number of families(Not including Cosmopolitan distribution).20 families were temperate,accounting for 34.48%.Genera were divided into 15 areal-types and 18 variations,mainly in 59 genera of North Temperate distributions.The temperate elements took 48.34%(189 genera),169 genera(43.22%)were tropical ones.In flora of species,the distribution type with the most advantage was North Temperate distributions.the region of spcies was dominated by temperate elements.The flora of Southwest of Hubei were of characteristics with transition of tropical and temperate zone,geographical components were complex and ancient.The floristic temperate elements advantage of species(57.56%)was larger than that of genera.In terms of functional traits,shrub species were slightly higher than tree species in the growth type of woody plants in southwestern Hubei,and woody lianas were the least,accounting for 49.59%,45.18% and 5.23% respectively.Potential maximum height in Southwest of Hubei was Single peak type,84.91% shurb and tree plants had potential maximum height between 1-20 m.Among them,most trees had a height of 5-20 m,many shrubs has a height of 1-5m,other high-grade woody plants were fewer.The proportion of deciduous and evergreen components was 55.56% and 44.44%,respectively.Analysis of leaf characteristics showed that broad-leaved species accounted for 96.76% of the total number of woody plants,coniferous species only 3.24%,most species had single leaves,compound leaf species accounted for 16.87%.78.51% of them had leaf shape of ovoid,oval and lanceolate.Leaf texture were mainly papery and leathery,accounted for 84.38%.Trees and shurbs had more leathery leaves,woody lianas had more thinly papery leaves.91.01% woody plants had single fruit type,which were mainly consisted of capsule,berry and drupe types.As for initial flowering stage,monthly distribution were uneven.March to june flowering species accounted for the most,accounting for 72.31% of the total number of woody plants,lower in autumn and winter.The initial fruit period was from June to September,accounting for 72.31% of the total number,less in other months.Combined with the growth type analysis,it can be obtained that with the decrease of species potential height(trees-shrubs-woody lianas),the proportion of deciduous and compound leaf species gradually increased,Leaves changed from thicker leathery leaves to thinner paper leaves,The proportion of berry species increased and the primary fruit stage of species was earlier,Which reflects the functional traits and different growth strategies of woody plants of different growth types.