Abstract
Vegetation reconstruction is an urgent problem in fragile environment like coal mine subsidence areas. Amygdalus pedunculata is an important eco-economic shrub species that promotes wind prevention, sand fixation as well as soil and water conservation. The natural regeneration of pure Amygdalus pedunculata forests is difficult to achieve because of its low seed germination rate and weak seedling growth. A stereo-complex ecosystem could potentially promote the germination and seedling growth of A. pedunculata and establish a steady mixed plantation consisting of trees and shrubs. Here, laboratory and pot experiments were conducted to assess the effect of four tree species on morphological and physiological indexes of A. pedunculata. The laboratory experiment showed that A. pedunculata seed germination and seedling growth from Yuyang County (YC-1) and Shenmu County (SC-6) were higher when plants were treated with the aqueous leaf extracts of Pinus sylvestris, Broussonetia papyrifera, and Pinus tabulaeformis compared with Populus simonii at concentrations of 2.5% (E2.5) and 5% (E5). Furthermore, the donor leaf extract was more sensitive to YC-1 than to SC-6. The pot experiment showed that the E2.5 and E5 treatments with the aqueous leaf extracts on the three tree species had strong promoting effects of seedling length, root length, seedling fresh weight, root fresh weight, and ground diameter for YC-1. The activity of catalase of A. pedunculata seedlings first increased and then decreased, while the activity of peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, roots, and the contents of soluble protein and chlorophyll decreased; the opposite patterns were observed for malondialdehyde, soluble sugar, cell membrane permeability, and proline were the opposite. Synthetical allelopathic effect index values of the leaf extracts of the three species on YC-1 were as follows: P. sylvestris > B. papyrifera > P. tabulaeformis (E2.5 to E20). Therefore, P. sylvestris and B. papyrifera could be used to promote the growth of A. pedunculata seedlings as well as for the construction of mixed plantations in coal mine degradation areas. Generally, this study provides new insight into the creation of stereo-complex ecosystems (P. sylvestris + A. pedunculata and B. papyrifera + A. pedunculata) in arid fragile environment.
Highlights
Amygdalus pedunculata Pall. is an eco-economic shrub native to semi-arid and arid regions of northwestern China, especially Yulin (Browicz and Zohary, 1996; Yu et al, 2005)
P. tabulaeformis, germination potential (GP), Germination rate (GR), and germination index (GI) peaked in E2.5 and decreased in other treatments; the decrease in these indicators was greater at higher concentrations
The GR and GI peaked under the P. sylvestris E2.5 treatment, and the GR and GI were increased by 14.81% and 28.21% compared with the control
Summary
Amygdalus pedunculata Pall. is an eco-economic shrub native to semi-arid and arid regions of northwestern China, especially Yulin (Browicz and Zohary, 1996; Yu et al, 2005). Is an eco-economic shrub native to semi-arid and arid regions of northwestern China, especially Yulin (Browicz and Zohary, 1996; Yu et al, 2005) It is highly adaptable, light-loving, drought-tolerant, cold-tolerant, and disease-resistant which made it become a pioneer shrub species for afforestation in sand fixation. In the sand-fixing vegetation area, the health of A. pedunculata is affected by several factors: local natural conditions, the vulnerability of seedlings, moisture and nutrients in the sandy soil, low forest biodiversity, slow growth, low productivity, unstable ecosystems, difficult natural regeneration, and desertification in mining areas (Li et al, 2007; Kurosaki et al, 2011).
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