Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

The promoting effect of vegetation recovery after the establishment of poplar fixing sand forest belts in the Horqin sandy land of Northeast China

Author(s):

Li-na Jiang ¹, Qi Lu ¹, Wen-bin Yang ¹*, Li-zhi Wu ²*

Recieved Date: 2013-07-18, Accepted Date: 2013-10-06

Abstract:

Low-covered vegetation is one of the typical vegetation patterns in arid and semi-arid areas of the world, through a long term succession of nature. These vegetation types consist of a lot of naturally sparse woodland and shrubbery. The sandy land is under semi-shifting and semi-fixing control. However, we found that at low vegetation coverage, horizontal distribution pattern of trees and shrubs can have marked effects on the fixation of shifting sands, and different horizontal distribution patterns have different restoration degrees of vegetation. We sought to understand the relationships between spatial patterns of poplar belts and their improved ability of restoration on sandy environments. Furthermore, we applied our results to better understand whether improved restoration is feasible for desertified landscapes in semi-arid sandy regions. The study was conducted in the semi-arid Horqin sandy land of northeast China, where the zonal vegetation is temperate and arid grassland. In fact, poplar belts act as natural bench structures that greatly limit soil erosion. The vegetation rehabilitation depends on distances between neighboring poplar belts. If the distance is appropriate, the bare ground between the belts will rehabilitate significantly. The difference of inter-belt distance can effectively affect the number of species and has an important influence on niche breadth of species. Gaussian mathematic model can be used to describe the effect of inter-belt vegetation restoration. According to the model, poplar belts can best promote inter-belt vegetation restoration if the inter-belt distance is between 28 and 40 m.

Keywords:

Vegetation recovery, poplar belts, sandy land, Gaussian model

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2013
Volume: 11
Issue: 3&4
Category: Environment
Pages: 2510-2515

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