Abstract
Transportation infrastructure dramatically affects ecological processes. However, the environmental assessment process does not often consider how transportation impacts biodiversity, especially in ecologically fragile areas. The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of the Yulin–Jingbian expressway on vegetative diversity and to discuss the reason for the differences in soil-moisture distribution and vegetation diversity along the expressway. Samples were collected from 60 quadrats, along 6 transects. The α diversity indices and soil-moisture content calculated for each layer were used to represent habitat heterogeneity within a quadrat. A total of 49 species representing 39 genera and 16 families were recorded. Perennial herbs (42.9%) and annual herbs (36.7%) were the dominant life form. Species richness, diversity, and evenness indices of the vegetation varied with the distance between sampling points along the expressway. The vegetation with high diversity and evenness were near the expressway and areas with low diversity were farther from the expressway. The soil-moisture content in the 0–20 cm soil layer was a driving factor for the α diversity indices, and soil-moisture content below 20 cm played an inhibitory role on the α diversity indices. The greatest impact of the expressway on vegetation diversity was its effect on surface runoff and the distribution of plant root systems in the top layer of soil.
Highlights
Road construction is an important part of our social structure and development which promotes rapid development of communities and economic development along the road corridors
The soil moisture content at 0–20 cm was highest within 200 m of the expressway and was lowest 500 m away from the expressway
The soil moisture content at 0–20 cm was highest within 200 m of the expressway and was lowest at 500 m from the expressway
Summary
Road construction is an important part of our social structure and development which promotes rapid development of communities and economic development along the road corridors. The “road-effect zone” is the area over which significant ecological effects extend outward from a road [3] It is wider than the road surface plus the roadside, in some examples the width ranges from 300 m to 1000 m from the road [13,14,15,16,17]. Its main part lies between Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, and Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, covering an area of approximately 40,000 km2 [19] in the western part of China’s monsoon region. This region contains a fragile environment, which is sensitive to climate change and human activities. Mu Us Sandy Land was once the most desertified regions in China and is the best example of the reversal of desertification in this century [20,21,22]
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