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| Impact of human disturbance on community structure and hydrological functions of Quercus acutissima forest in Yimeng Mountain area |
| Liu Shunsheng1 , Hu Xuli2 , Yuan Li2 , Su Dan3 , Wang Yanping1 , Zhang Guangcan1 , Liu Xia1 |
1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration,College of Forestry, Shandong Agricultural University, 271018, Tai'an, Shandong,China;
2. Branch of Soil and Water Conservation, Huaihe River Commission 233001, Bengbu, Anhui,China;
3. Liujiagou Agricultural Comprehensive Service Station, Penglai City of Shandong Province, 265608, Yantai, Shandong, China
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Abstract In order to explore the change of community structure and hydrological functions of Quercus acutissima forest at different human disturbance levels, three typical Q. acutissima forests under enclosure, grazing and overcutting, grazing- and overcutting-forbidden measures were studied. The results are as follows. 1) Grazing and overcutting directly lead to the significant degradation of community structure and weakening of hydrological functions. Compared to the enclosure measure, grazing and overcutting measures lead to a great reduction of community coverage by 83.0% , and decrease the community diversity and community evenness by 88.7% and 85.1% respectively. The hydrological functions of forest in terms of total soil porosity, stable infiltration coefficients, and water-holding capacity of litter, are also significantly reduced by 44.2% , 76.7% and 43.7% , respectively. 2 ) On the contrary, grazing- and overcutting-forbidden measure is favorable to the recovery of community structure and hydrological functions. Compared to grazing and overcutting, some indexes such as community coverage, diversity, evenness, total soil porosity, stable infiltration coefficients, and water-holding capacity of litter are increased by 520% , 613% , 532% , 30.3% , 103.7% and 28.0% respectively. 3) Hydrological function indexes are well correlated linearly with community coverage index. The higher the community coverage, the better the hydrological functions. Community coverage can serve as an important index of forest structure and functional degradation or restoration.
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Received: 16 April 2013
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