Restoration dynamics of medicinal plant species diversity in Cunninghamia lanceolata plantations at different ages
Wild medicinal plant resources are an important material basis for China's traditional Chinese medicine business and industry,and are closely related to ecological balance,yet little is known about the changes in medicinal plant resources and species diversity with forest age in plantation forest restoration.Here,we selected C.lanceolata plantations,located at the Lechang Forest Farm in Guangdong Province,with six age series of 5,10,15,20,30,and 60 years.The medicinal plant diversity and community composition indices were used to analyze the variation trend of species diversity with forest stand age.(1)A total of 74 families,131 genera,and 178 understory vegetation species were present across the six forest ages.The shrub layer had 58 families,86 genera,and 105 species and the main plants were Fagaceae.(2)No significant linear relationship was there between age and the species richness of understory vegetation and medicinal plants in C.lanceolata plantations.The maximum species richness of the understory shrub layer appeared in the 10-year-old stand(22.33),and that of herbs appeared in the 20-year-old stand(14.33).The maximum species richness of the medicinal plant shrub layer occurred in the 10-and 20-year-old stands(16.00),and herbs emerged in the 20-year-old stand(8.67).(3)Compared to understory vegetation,the Jaccard and Morisita-Horn similarity indices of the herb and shrub layers of medicinal plants were higher.The Jaccard similarity index of the medicinal plants in the shrub and herb layers decreased with stand age,whereas that of the medicinal plants in the herb layer increased.In conclusion,near-naturally managed C.lanceolata plantation forests can cultivate more medicinal plants,and the diversity of medicinal plants will maintain a relatively stable state with the recovery time after the cessation of anthropogenic disturbance.Combined with the recovery trend of wild medicinal plants in plantation forests,the protective development of wild medicinal resources can be carried out appropriately according to the age of the forest.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
