Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Understory plant community as environmental indicators: Comparing eucalypt plantations with an indigenous forest stand

Author(s):

Yan-Qiu Hu ¹, Zhi-Yao Su ¹*, Xian-Dong Ke ¹, Yong-Mei Xiong ²

Recieved Date: 2013-07-18, Accepted Date: 2013-10-16

Abstract:

The importance of eucalypt plantations to industrial forestry has been widely recognised. However, growing concern about the effects of eucalypt plantations on the environment has given rise to disputes in plantation forestry. In this study, using understory vegetation as environmental indicators, we compared species composition, diversity, and community structure of two eucalypt plantations (one-year-old and three-year-old eucalypt plantations) with the indigenous flora, with an aim to gain new insights into the environmental effects of eucalypt plantation. The two eucalypt plantations were significantly lower in species richness and number of individuals in the understory as compared with the indigenous flora. All the diversity measures except species-specific density (number of individuals per species) were different between the eucalypt and the indigenous forest stands. The dominance/diversity curves of the two eucalypt stands had similar shapes, which were together far apart from that of the indigenous forest stand. Correlation analysis of ordination sample scores indicated that the two eucalypt stands was positively related, while they were negatively correlated to the indigenous forest stand. Most of the indicator species of the two eucalypt stands were ruderal herbs and shrubs, while the indicator species for the indigenous forest understory were dominant tree seedlings, shrubs and lianas. However, all the understory species in different stands were native species from the local species pool. No invasive plant species had been found to occur in the understory of the eucalypt plantations. Our study suggested that environmental impacts of eucalypt plantations on local biodiversity existed, however, fears about eucalypt trees as “big killers of local species” and eucalypt plantations as “green desert” should be reconsidered.

Keywords:

Environmental concern, eucalypt plantation, indigenous broadleaved forest, understory vegetation, diversity measures

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2013
Volume: 11
Issue: 3&4
Category: Environment
Pages: 1616-1620

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