JOURNAL OF NANJING FORESTRY UNIVERSITY ›› 2019, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (5): 128-134.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1000-2006.201901043

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Effects of two types of artificial interferences on plant diversity of urban landscape forests

WU Sisi(), LU Xiaozhen, WANG Xinyue, GE Zhiwei*()   

  1. Co-Innovation Center for the Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
  • Received:2019-01-29 Revised:2019-04-29 Online:2019-10-08 Published:2019-10-08
  • Contact: GE Zhiwei E-mail:2395096973@qq.com;29541770@qq.com

Abstract:

【Objective】 Urbanization has a great impact on urban forest ecosystems and has become a hot topic in urban ecology, with researchers striving to understand the dynamics of biodiversity in urban communities. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of tourist activities and urban garden management on plant species diversity and to develop a theoretical basis for the maintenance of the Quanshan Reserve. 【Method】 In June 2018, field surveys were conducted in 54 plots that were established in the Quanshan, Taishan and Yunlong Mountains in the Quanshan Reserve. 【Result】 Increases in artificial disturbance were related to reductions in species diversity. However, tourist activity and urban gardening affected the species diversity of different vertical layers differently, and tourist activity significantly affected species diversity (P<0.05), whereas urban gardening did not (P>0.05). In addition, neither type of disturbances had a significant effect on species richness (P>0.05), and both had significant effects on uniformity (P<0.05). These two types of artificial disturbance (tourist activity and urban gardening) had different effects on different community layers. Increase in tourist activity reduced the number of species in the arbor layer, whereas increase in urban gardening activity increased the number of species in the shrub layer. In addition, tourist activity significantly affected species diversity, with the lowest species diversity observed under intermediate disturbance, whereas urban gardening had no such effect. Furthermore, neither type of disturbance had a significant effect on species richness, and both had significant effects on uniformity. Interestingly, uniformity decreased and then increased with increasing tourist activity but exhibited a positive linear correlation with urban gardening.【Conclusion】 In this study, two types of human interferences were investigated to explore the effects on plant diversity in urban landscape forest communities, and the results showed that the interference of tourist activities had a more direct and significant impact on the distribution pattern of plant diversity, which could guide the protection of Quanshan Reserve.

Key words: Quanshan Reserve, tourism activity disturbance, urban management activity disturbance, species diversity, uniformity

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