Effects of different traveling disturbances on the species diversity in Pinus taiwanensis communities

Abstract

The effects of different traveling disturbances on the different layers of the Pinus taiwanensis community in Tianzhu Mountain National Forest Park were studied using the diversity indices of species richness index ( S), Simpson index ( D), Shannon-Wiener index ( H) and Pielou evenness index ( J). The results showed that the diversity indices of the arbor layer in low disturbance were the highest. Whereas, the diversity indices of the other layers in intermediate disturbance were the highest. The values of S, D, H, and J in low disturbance were 38, 3.0976, 0.9326, and 0.7515. The values of the indices in intermediate disturbance were 44, 3.2519, 0.9421, and 0.8594, higher than those in low disturbed forest, especially in the shrub and herb layers. In the highly disturbed forest, the diversity indices were 34, 3.0095, 0.9289, and 0.7834, lower than those in the intermediately disturbed forest. By comparing the stability of differently disturbed forests with the community dominance index ( C), it was clear that the C of the intermediately disturbed forests was the lowest among the three differently disturbed forests. It is proposed that the intermediately disturbed forests can improve the species diversity, but maybe decrease the community stability.