Relationship between bamboo growth status and woody plants in a giant panda habitat

Abstract

To detect the relationship between bamboo growth status and woody plants in a giant panda habitat, we carried out a field survey in the Wanglang Nature Reserve, Sichuan Province, China. We used bamboo clump number and bamboo height to describe the growth status of bamboo. We found bamboo height was positively correlated with tree species richness, and significantly negatively correlated with tree individual number and regeneration individual number. According to the relationship between bamboo height and these woody plant variables, suitable habitat for bamboo can be summarized as having a mean tree species richness of 10, a mean of 58 individual trees, and a mean of 28 individual regeneration. Furthermore, most plots where have trace of giant panda were distributed in the plots with taller bamboo, suggesting that bamboo height may be a potential indicator of habitat use by pandas. Based on these results, we concluded that bamboo clump number and bamboo height can be used as indices to represent bamboo growth status, that tree species richness, tree individual number and regeneration individual number can be used to explain bamboo height. These findings provide basic information for understanding the assembly mechanisms of plant communities in giant panda habitat and restoration practice.