Vegetation community dynamics during naturalized developmental restoration of Pinus tabulaeformis plantation in North warm temperate zone

Abstract

Abstract The study is to explore the dynamics of community structure, diversity, interspecific relationships and stability during naturalized developmental vegetation restoration which realized by natural interaction between plantation and native trees without human’s involvement. The naturalized developmental restored forests in Baxianshan National Reserve were divided into three typical stages (i.e. Pinus tabulaeformis forest stage, mixed forest stage and near-natural forest stage) according to the ratio of P. tabulaeformis coverage to arbor layer, and the zonal natural secondary forests for control. According to the data of each wood gauge, we focused on the dynamics of community in terms of structure, diversity and stability. We found that, (i) The composition of dominant populations kept stable since the mixed forests stage and the α-diversity increased with restoration; (ii) The diameter class structure of tree layer exhibited a tendency of bell-shaped type toward inverted J-type, indicating an active regenerating and developmental status; (iii) Niche width of dominant populations such as Juglans mandshurica, Quercus mongolica, Quercus variabilis and Tilia amurensis increased during restoration, while that of Quercus dentata population decreased after playing a pioneer role; (iv) The proportion of negative association and high niche overlapped population pairs (>0.5) both decreased with restoration. In summary, naturalized developmental restoration has promoted the actively developing and regenerating of populations and improved the healthy restoration of plantation community. The status and interrelationships of populations were still being adjusted. The results provide a reference for revealing the dynamic characteristics of vegetation community development in naturalized developmental restoration of plantations.