Abstract
AbstractVegetation and biomass in six plots, each with five quadrats, in Vitex shrubland in northern China were related to type and degree of human disturbance. Canonical correspondence analysis of the vegetation and environmental data showed two lines of variation, the first one highly correlated with the degree of disturbance, but the second one appearing within the disturbed plots cannot yet be fully explained. Changes in life‐form spectrum were small, but the geographical spectrum changed under heavy disturbance towards a higher proportion of tropical, subtropical and cosmopolitan species. The number of shrub species also decreased noticeably. The above‐ground biomass of both Vitex and the accompanying species and the total above‐ground biomass of the shrubland was negatively correlated with the intensity of disturbance. The root/stem biomass ratio in Vitex reaches values of over 5 in disturbed plots, but only between 1 and 2 in the protected plots.
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