Abstract
Revegetation on sandy land has attracted worldwide attention, especially on the extremely fragile alpine eco-region of the Tibetan Plateau. However, the effectiveness of revegetation and its controlling factors have rarely been reported. We collected plant growths and species composition from seven field sites in 2011 and conducted a follow-up random investigation in 2016. The indicators, including richness and diversity, were used to compare the differences among these sites based on redundancy and cluster analyses. The results indicated that plant growth has different characteristics in different land types. The distribution and growth of Artemisia sphaerocephala, Artemisia younghusbandii and Heteropappus gouldii varied with topography, and the crown widths of A. sphaerocephala were 100.6 cm × 87.2 cm on barchan dune and 26.0 cm × 25.4 cm on moving sandy land at valley slopes. These species are likely the pioneer plants for revegetation on sandy land. It seems that sand-protecting barriers play an important role in revegetation. The stone and plastic checkerboard barriers increase plant diversity, while straw barrier promotes the plant growth. These findings provide useful guidance to the ongoing vegetation recovery on sandy land, an important component of the Project on Construction and Protection of Ecological Security Barriers on the Tibetan Plateau.
Highlights
Desertification has become a worldwide concern because of its adverse impacts, such as the destruction of infrastructure, damage to economic loss, and increase in regional poverty and social instability[1,2]
This paper provides our first investigation on the vegetation coverage, crown width, and species composition from different sandy land types and protecting barriers
A total of 14 species were found in different sandy land types (Table 4)
Summary
Desertification has become a worldwide concern because of its adverse impacts, such as the destruction of infrastructure, damage to economic loss, and increase in regional poverty and social instability[1,2]. A series of ecological protection and restoration projects have been conducted to prevent vegetation loss and recover degraded land and its related ecological services[17] This effort includes planting artificial forest and shrubs over the plateau[18,19]. The key limiting factors, such as sandy land types and sand-protecting barriers, and how these factors affect the revegetation. We analyzed the growth of plant species and vegetation community on different land types, identified the corresponding dominant species for each land type, and elucidated the effectiveness of sand-protecting barriers on revegetation. The following questions were addressed: (1) is topography one of the key limiting factors that affect plant growth and distribution on different sandy land types? The following questions were addressed: (1) is topography one of the key limiting factors that affect plant growth and distribution on different sandy land types? and (2) how does revegetation effectiveness change among sand-protecting barriers?
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
