Dataset Information

The effect of slope aspect on vegetation attributes in a mountainous dry valley, Southwest China.

ABSTRACT: Slope aspect plays a critical role in influencing vegetation pattern in semiarid area. The dry valleys of the Hengduan Mountains Region, southwestern China, are striking geographical landscape, suffering from severe ecological degradation. Here, we comprehensively investigated how slope aspect affects vegetation attributes in one of these valleys- the dry valley in the upper reaches of Min River. Three sites were selected along the valley and we quantitively examined the vegetation difference between slope aspects at the whole valley scale and each site level. We found significant vegetation differences between slope aspects in species composition, vegetative structure, and biodiversity pattern, which were in accordance with the observed significant difference in soil nutrient. Generally, north-facing slopes are associated with higher biomass, coverage and height, and species diversity than south-facing slopes. We also found between-aspect differences varied among the study sites, resulting in increased biomass, height, and ? diversity differences, decreased density and coverage differences, and opposite trend observed in ? diversity at relatively wet site. In conclusion, slope aspect had significant effect on vegetation attributes, which was significantly influenced by local climate (aridity) in terms of both strength and direction depending on the specific attributes investigated.

SUBMITTER: Yang J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7536199 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The effect of slope aspect on vegetation attributes in a mountainous dry valley, Southwest China.

Yang Jie J El-Kassaby Yousry A YA Guan Wenbin W

Scientific reports 20201005 1

Slope aspect plays a critical role in influencing vegetation pattern in semiarid area. The dry valleys of the Hengduan Mountains Region, southwestern China, are striking geographical landscape, suffering from severe ecological degradation. Here, we comprehensively investigated how slope aspect affects vegetation attributes in one of these valleys- the dry valley in the upper reaches of Min River. Three sites were selected along the valley and we quantitively examined the vegetation difference be ...[more]

PMID: 33020576

Similar Datasets

Project description:Soil quality assessment is important for karst ecosystems where soil erosion is significant. A large amount of vegetation restoration has been implemented since the early 21st century in degraded karst areas across southwestern China. However, the impacts on soil quality of different restoration types rarely have been compared systematically. In the current study, we investigated the soil quality after a number of vegetation restoration projects as well as their adjacent cropland by analyzing soil samples. Six vegetation restoration types were evaluated, including one natural restoration (natural shrubland, protected for 13 years), three economic forests (4 years Eucalyptus robusta, 4 years Prunus salicina and 6 years Zenia insignis) and two mixed forests (1 year Juglans regia-crop and 13 years Toona sinensis-Pennisetum purpureum ). We evaluated the benefits of different restoration types more accurately by setting each adjacent cropland as the control and setting the variation between the corresponding restored and control site as the evaluation object so that the background differences of six sites could be eliminated. The results indicated that natural shrubland, Toona sinensis-Pennisetum purpureum and Zenia insignis were effective in improving soil quality index (SQI) in degraded karst cropland largely due to their higher SOC and TN content. The variation of SQI (VSQI) of natural shrubland was significantly higher than that in Eucalyptus robusta, Prunus salicina and Juglans regia-crop in total soil layer (0-30 cm) (P < 0.05), indicating natural shrubland had better capacity to improve soil quality. The boosting regression tree model revealed that vegetation restoration type explained 73.49% and restoration time explained 10.30% of the variation in VSQI, which confirmed that vegetation restoration type and restoration time are critical for achieving soil reserves. Therefore, it is vital to select appropriate vegetation type in restoration projects and recovery for a long time in order to achieve better soil quality. The current study provides a theoretical basis on which to assess the effects of different vegetation restoration types on the heterogeneous degraded karst areas.

Dataset Information

The effect of slope aspect on vegetation attributes in a mountainous dry valley, Southwest China.

Publications

The effect of slope aspect on vegetation attributes in a mountainous dry valley, Southwest China.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets