Ecological effects of roads on the plant diversity of coastal wetland in the Yellow River Delta.

Yunzhao Li,Guangxuan Han,Guangmei Wang,Chao Zhan,Yuqin Fu,Kai Ning,Siyao Du,Junbao Yu,Fanzhu Qu

doi:10.1155/2014/952051

Abstract

The 26 sample sites in 7 study plots adjacent to asphalt road and earth road in coastal wetland in the Yellow River Delta were selected to quantify plant diversity using quadrat sampling method in plant bloom phase of July and August 2012. The indice of β T and Jaccard's coefficient were applied to evaluate the species diversity. The results showed that the plant diversities and alien plants were high in the range of 0–20 m to the road verge. There were more exotics and halophytes in plots of asphalt roadside than that of earth roadside. However, proportion of halophytes in habitats of asphalt roadsides was lower than that of earth roadside. By comparing β-diversity, there were more common species in the asphalt roadsides than that in the earth roadsides. The similarity of plant communities in studied plots of asphalt roadsides and earth roadsides increased with increasing the distance to road verge. The effect range of roads for plant diversity in study region was about 20 m to road verge. Our results indicate that the construction and maintenance of roads in wetland could increase the plant species diversities of communities and risk of alien species invasion.

Highlights

Roads are common artificial infrastructures, but high density roads rarely appear in wetlands
Ecologists have found that the positive feedbacks, for example, regional climate change, and the amount of forest fragmentation and deforestation directly related to the construction of roads [28, 29]
The biodiversity of plant communities are deeply affected by roads in the YRD

Summary

Introduction

Roads are common artificial infrastructures, but high density roads rarely appear in wetlands. The study interests of road ecology in the wetland are growing [1,2,3]. Construction and maintenance of roads have modified the natural wetland landscape and might result in many ecological effects (or ecological risks) [4,5,6]. It is difficult to evaluate accurately ecological effects of road on ecosystem because of comprehensive results [19,20,21,22]. The previous studies in the YRD reported that the high species richness and biodiversity were observed adjacent to the road verge [33]. Besides the distance from the road verge, the width, noise, vehicle traffic levels of road, and highway density could influence the plant

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