Stability and micro-topography effects of Sophora moorcroftiana community for fixation of sandy land under natural restoration, southern Tibetan Plateau
Chengrui Liao1, 2, 3, Haidong Li2, *, Guoping Lv1, 2, 3, Meirong Tian2, Jiarong Tian1, 2, 3, Huihui Shi1, 3, Yannan Xu1, 3, *
1Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
2 Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Nanjing 210042, China
3 Centre of Co-Innovation for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
E-mail address: nfuxyn@njfu.edu.cn; lihd2020@163.com
Telephone numbers: 18905188069; 13951793216
Abstract: The Tibetan Plateau, a vulnerable eco-region for global warming, has huge value of science and practice on ecological restoration to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Sophora moorcroftiana shrubs, which are widely distributed in the middle reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River basin, have been recovered on desertified land benefiting from natural restoration during the past decades. However, the effects of habitat conditions in different topographies on population structure and distribution of S. moorcroftiana have been rarely reported. Here, we achieve the variation of vegetation and micro-topography of S. moorcroftiana population by a series of field surveys with Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) during natural restoration in 2017. The results indicate that the positive correlation between height and CPA reached the 99% confidence level (p < 0.01). The plant height was significantly correlated with the elevation and slope (r = 0.167 and 0.145, respectively; p < 0.01). While the distribution ofS. moorcroftiana population decreased along increasing elevation, and the trend of distribution was decreasing firstly, increasing secondly and decreasing finally with increasing slope. The habitat conditions on the southwest slope of approximately 20°-25° with altitudes of 3593-3643 m most favor to the distribution of S. moorcroftiana population in this region. These will help to understand the effect of micro-topography on population structure and distribution of Sophora moorcroftiana in southern Tibetan Plateau and assess the effectiveness of natural restoration of Sophora moorcroftianain different topographies.
Key word: population structure; spatial distribution; micro-topography; Sophora moorcroftiana ; Tibetan Plateau