黧蒴锥是华南用于人工造林和生态恢复的优良乡土树种.选取浇水频率和凋落物覆盖量两个控制因子,研究在不同的土壤湿度和凋落物覆盖量条件下,黧蒴锥种子萌发及幼苗存活和生长特征.结果表明:凋落物对黧蒴锥种子萌发和幼苗生长的影响与环境的潮湿程度相关.当浇水频率为每天1次时,凋落物覆盖会抑制黧蒴锥种子萌发和幼苗早期生长,导致种子萌发率降低、幼苗死亡率提高;在浇水频率为2 d 1次和3 d 1次时,凋落物覆盖可以改善土壤的水分状况,有助于种子萌发和幼苗存活.凋落物覆盖还可以显著地提高幼苗的生物量.在通过播种来实现亚热带灌木林地更新时,可利用凋落物覆盖促进黧蒴锥的种子萌发和幼苗存活.
Tropical forests continue to vanish rapidly,but few long-term studies have ever examined if and how the lost forests can be restored.Based on a 45-year restoration study in south China,we found that a tropical rain forest,once completely destroyed,could not recover naturally without deliberate restoration efforts.We identified two kinds of thresholds that must be overcome with human ameliorative measures before the ecosystem was able to recover.The first threshold was imposed primarily by extreme physical conditions such as exceedingly high surface temperature and impoverished soil,while the second was characterized by a critical level of biodiversity and a landscape context that accommodates dispersal and colonization processes.Our three treatment catchments(un-restored barren land,single-species plantation,and mixed-forest stand)exhibited dramatically different changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning over 4 decades.The mixed forest,having the highest level of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning,possesses several major properties of tropical rain forest.These findings may have important implications for the restoration of many severely degraded or lost tropical forest ecosystems.
REN Hai,LI ZhiAn,SHEN WeiJun,YU ZuoYue,PENG ShaoLin,LIAO ChongHui,DING MingMao & WU JianGuo 1 South China Botanical Garden,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Guangzhou 510650,China
Human disturbance and climate change have increased the risk of extinction for rare and endangered wild plant species.One effective way to conserve these rare and endangered species is through reintroduction.In this review,we summarize the advances in wild plant reintroduction from five perspectives:the establishment of reintroduction biology as an important tool for biodiversity conservation;the importance of genetic diversity in reintroduction;reintroduction under global climate change;recruitment limitation in reintroduction;and reintroduction and ecological restoration.In addition,we consider the future of plant reintroduction strategies.