Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2017, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (4): 496-510.DOI: 10.11983/CBB16115

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Vegetation Structure and Internal Relationship Between Distribution Patterns of Vegetation and Environment in Ecological Service Forest of Rui’an City in Zhejiang Province

Nuonan Ye1, Naping Shen2, Tianqi Shang1, Hongdi Gao3, Jieran Guan1, Lita Yi1*   

  1. 1School of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Lin’an 311300, China;
    2The East China Institute of Forest Inventory and Planning of the State Forestry Administration, Hangzhou 310019, China
    3Ecological Management Center, Forestry Department of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310020, China
  • Received:2016-05-26 Accepted:2016-10-11 Online:2017-07-01 Published:2017-05-05
  • Contact: Yi Lita
  • About author:

    # Co-first authors

Abstract: With the construction of an ecological service forest (ESF) in Zhejiang province, the ESF has provided many ecological and social benefits to humans; thus, the number of studies about ESF has also increased. This study describes how to analyze the vegetation structure and the internal relationship between distribution patterns of vegetation and environment in 92 permanent sample plots of the ESF in Rui’an city, Zhejiang province. The vegetation structure and the internal relationship between the distribution patterns of vegetation and environment were studied by using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN), biodiversity and interspecies association. (1) The elevation, slop aspect and slop position were main environment factors in the community distribution. (2) Combined with the results of CCA, the 92 plots could be divided into 13 groups by TWINSPAN, and the associations of Pinus massoniana, Cunninghamia lanceolata and Cryptomeria fortunei were the most constructive species. (3) The diversity of vegetation was high, and the groups with P. massonian, C. lanceolata and C. fortunei as dominant species had higher diversity. The species diversities of different layers in the community were in the order of shrub layer>tree layer>herb layer. (4) The stability of the community was not high (less than 2), but the tree layer was relatively stable because the lower ratios of positive and negative association theoretically implied the instable vegetation structure. Therefore, the internal relationship between the distribution patterns of vegetation and environment and the dominant species association could be explained by a combination of all methods; these methods could provide a scientific foundation for the classification management of a regional ESF.