Formation of Plant Communities of the Newly Created Wetland in Modern Yellow River Delta

Abstract

To explore the cause of plant vegetation distributed on the newly created wetland in estuary of modern Yellow River Delta, we took field-based observation of the wetland plant diversity of the Yellow River Delta, Shandong, China. Based on the results of field investigation, we studied the effects of salinity on germination characteristics of four dominant species in wetland of Yellow River Delta, i.e. Suaeda salsa, Apocynum venetum, Phragmites australis and Typha orientalis.The germination conditions of the four dominant emerging plants at 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300mM NaCl were studied, the results indicated that all species had a trend of decreased germination percentage and rate of germination with the increase of salinity levels, but the inhibitory effect of salinity on the germination percentage of each was different. S. salsa and A. venetum had higher tolerance of salinity than P. australis and T. orientalis. Germination percentage and germination rate of seeds of the four species were significantly affected by salinity.In conclusion, the results of seeds germination of the four dominant species in the newly created wetland were accorded with the results of field investigation of plant community distribution along the gradients of environmental salinity, and salinity is one of the most pivotal factors limited the distribution of the plant vegetation in the newly created wetland of Yellow River Delta.