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Chinese pine tree ring width chronology and its
relation to climate conditions in the Qianshan Mountains
CHEN Zhenju, SUN Yu, HE Xingyuan, CHEN Wei, SHAO Xuemei, SHAO Xuemei, ZHANG Huayu, WANG Zhongyu, LIU Xiaoyu
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 381-392.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0078-8
Taking Chinese pine in Qianshan Mountains as a sample, the tree ring width chronology including Standard, Residual, and Arstan chronologies was established. The results show that the tree ring width of Chinese pine is highly correlated with the temperatures from May to July and from September to November. Statistically significant positive correlations were observed between tree ring width and the extreme minimum temperatures in July and mean minimum temperatures in September. The chronology was significantly or very significantly correlated with extreme minimum temperatures in December and the following January, with mean minimum temperatures in January, with annual precipitation and with precipitation in April, May and the following December. The Chinese pine responded strongly to the monthly/yearly water vapor pressure and relative humidity. Annual and largely monthly evaporation in April–July had a negative effect on tree growth, and was particularly striking for evaporation in April–July. The narrow tree rings recorded by the chronology demonstrated the 30 occasions of extreme drought since 1800. The growth of Chinese pine in the Qianshan mountains were also affected by climate changes on a hemispheric and global scale. There were 11-, 23- and 50-year-common periodicities between the chronology and solar activity and 10-, 20- and 45-year-common periodicities between the chronology and geomagnetic activity.
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Plant community characteristics and their relationships
with climate in the Hexi Corridor region of northwestern China
SU Peixi, CHEN Hongbin, YAN Qiaodi
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 393-400.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0064-1
Species, coverage, density, appearance, important values and above ground biomass of desert plant communities in the Hexi Corridor region in northwestern China were investigated. Data on the meteorological factors at the investigation sites were collected. Their relationships were statistically analyzed. The results show that the composition of plant species and total density in the Hexi Corridor region are positively correlated with elevation and longitude, but negatively with latitude. The relation decreases from the southeast to the northwest in this region. In the desert regions with an accumulated temperature of >10°C greater than 3200°C, the shrubs, including semi-shrubs, occupy dominant positions in the communities. Their importance values reach 100. When the accumulated temperature is about 3000°C, the communities are often in some type of transition, either with herbage being the dominant species, with some semi-shrubs or shrubs as companion species, or the dominant species being semi-shrubs with some perennial herbage as companion species. In desert communities with an annual precipitation of over 110 mm, the main life forms of plants are semi-shrubs or perennial herbs. When precipitation is less than 110 mm, the main life forms of the vegetation are dwarf shrub or annual herbs. In the extreme arid regions with annual precipitation of around 50 mm in the northwestern part of the Hexi Corridor, barely some annual herbage come to life during the rainy season. Desert ecosystems consist of sparse vegetation with small biomass. They change with climate factors and are especially sensitive to precipitation, which is particularly important for their conservation.
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Turbulent exchange of CO over a broadleaf-Korean pine forest in Changbai Mountain, northeast
China
WU Jiabing, GUAN Dexin, SHI Tingting, HAN Shijie, JIN Changjie, SUN Xiaomin
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 401-406.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0066-z
Turbulent exchange of CO2 was measured continuously via the open-path eddy covariance technique over a broadleaf-Korean pine forest in Changbai Mountain, northeast China. The results show that with near-neutral atmospheric stratification, CO2 and vertical wind components measured over the forest canopy in the inertial sub-range followed the expected -2/3 power law. The dominant vertical eddy scale was about 100 m. The frequency ranges of eddy contributions to CO2 fluxes were mostly within 0.01–2.0 Hz. Large eddies with low frequency over the canopy contributed more to CO2 fluxes than small eddies. The open-path eddy covariance system could satisfy the estimation of turbulent fluxes over the canopy, but the CO2 fluxes between forest and atmosphere were generally underestimated at night because of the increment non-turbulent processes, suggesting that the CO2 fluxes estimated under weak turbulence need to be revised correspondingly.
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Division of ecological species groups and functional
groups based on interspecific association – a case study of
the tree layer in the tropical lowland rainforest of Jianfenling in
Hainan Island, China
LI Yide, XU Han, CHEN Dexiang, LUO Tushou, MO Jinhua, LUO Wen, CHEN Huangqiang, JIANG Zhongliang
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 407-415.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0049-0
Twenty-three sample plots dominated by Vatica mangachapoi at various elevations in the tropical lowland rainforest in the Jianfengling National Nature Reserve of Hainan Island were established. The interspecific association among the 32 dominant species was analyzed and the division of ecological species groups and functional groups are discussed. The results showed that these dominant populations had an overall positive interspecific association. The species pairs with significant, positive association accounted for only about 10% of the total 496 species pairs. Most of the other species pairs showed weak association or non-association, i.e., the dominant populations investigated had relatively independent distributions. The 32 dominant species were divided into four ecological species groups and ten functional groups according to their interspecific association coefficients, based on a cluster analysis of the species. Recognition characteristics of the ten functional groups are proposed.
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Dynamics of leaf area index and canopy openness
of three forest types in a warm temperate zone
SANG Weiguo, CHEN Sha, LI Guangqi
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 416-421.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0062-3
Deciduous broad-leaved forests (DBF), Larix principis-rupprechtii (LF) and Pinus tabulaeformis plantations (PF) are three typical forest communities in the warm temperate zone of the Dongling Mountains. In this study, we used an indirect method, hemispheric photography, to measure and analyze the dynamics of leaf area index (LAI) and canopy openness of the three forest communities. The results show that the LAI values of DBF and LF increased gradually with plant growth and development. The highest LAI value appeared in August, while canopy openness changed inversely with LAI. The lowest value appeared in November. DBF maintained a higher LAI in August and had a more open canopy in November compared with LF. For PF, we observed little changes in the LAI and canopy openness which was attributed to the leaf retention of this evergreen species. However, a similar relation between LAI and canopy openness was found for the three forest communities: canopy openness varied inversely with LAI. The relation is exponential and significant. Therefore, canopy openness is a good indicator of LAI in forests. This result can be used to test the validity of the LAI based on remote sensing and to provide a reference for the study of the canopy heterogeneity and its effect. This also benefits modeling for fluxes of carbon, water and energy from the level of the stand to landscape.
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Effects of thinning on plant species diversity
and composition of understory herbs in a larch plantation
ZHU Jiaojun, YAN Qiaoling, MAO Zhihong, ZHANG Caihong, LIU Zugen
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 422-428.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0051-6
The effects of thinning on plant species diversity and composition of understory herbs in a larch plantation were investigated. The relationships between plant species diversity and composition of understory herbs and light conditions were established. Twenty-five 1 m × 1 m plots and fifteen 13 m × 1 m transects were set up in unthinned and thinned stands, respectively. All the transects in the thinned stands were set across the thinned rows and unthinned rows, and each of them was divided into nine 1 m × 1 m sub-plots. The herb diversity and light conditions were observed in each plot and sub-plot. The results show that there was a significant difference in herb diversity between the thinned and unthinned stands. All biodiversity indices except for evenness index in the thinned stand were higher than those of the unthinned stand, i.e., the herb diversity increased after thinning. According to the changes in herb densities and whether one species could be found in a stand or not before and after thinning, all herb species were classed into three types: positive, neutral and negative species, which referred to a species newly appeared and having an obviously increased density after thinning, with no obvious changes in its appearance and density after thinning, and disappeared and having an obviously decreased density after thinning, respectively. Many new species were found in the thinned stand like Corydalis pallida, Prenanthes tatarinowii, Vicia unijuga and Sonchus brachyotus etc. However, most species found in both the thinned and unthinned stands were negative species. In all nine sub-plots, only 11 and 10 species were found in spring and in autumn respectively, accounting for 17.74% and 15.15% of all the species in the thinned stand, respectively. All biodiversity indices were the highest in the center sub-plots and most of them tended to reduce from middle to side sub-plots. There was a close correlation between most of the three types of species and light conditions which was similar to each other in the thinned and unthinned stands.
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Edge effect of the ecotone of wetland and arid
grassland in a semi-arid region of China
HOU Ruiping, LI Rui, LIU Yunfang, ZHANG Kebin
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 434-439.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0063-2
The edge effect of plant communities was investigated in a wetland-dry grassland ecosystem at the Siertan Wetland in Yanchi County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. Four transects lines, with each about 1 km long, were established for a vegetation survey in July 2005, along biotope gradients in four directions: east, northeast, west and northwest. The data was analyzed using TWINSPAN classification method. The vegetation in this wetland was classified into three vegetation types: halophytic marsh vegetation, meadow vegetation and grassland vegetation. Based on the calculation of the community structure indices, the edge effect was studied which revealed distinct differences among those three vegetation zones along each transect line. The ecotone had high richness indices (R), a high diversity index (SW) and ecological dominance (SP). Evenness, as measured by the index (E), was less apparent. From the four transect lines, it appears that the ecotone in the northeasterly direction scored higher in each community structure indicator than any of the other directions and those towards the northwest were least. The variation in the edge effect between the different transect lines is caused by human disturbances and topographic uplift.
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Ecological effects of lawn greens with pure and
mixed stands in an urban setting
LIU Jiaomei, LI Shuhua, ZHANG Zhiguo
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 440-448.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0071-2
We studied the ecological benefits of four types of urban green spaces (lawn, a Robinia pseudoacacia stand, a Pinus tabulaeformis stand and a mixed stand of both species) in Yuan Dynasty Wall Relics Park, Beijing. Each of the eight sampling sites was about 0.1 hm2. The experiment was carried out in June, 2006 over a period of eight consecutive days, during which we continuously measured air temperature, relative humidity (RH) and wind speed at the four green spaces in both horizontal and vertical directions. The results were as follows: in the horizontal direction, the all-day average temperature at the pine stand was the lowest and its RH was the highest under three different climate conditions. During the daytime high temperature period, the temperature of the lawn was the highest and its RH the lowest. The temperature was lowest for the mixed stand, and the RH was highest for the pine stand. The highest average daily temperature occurred in the locust stand. The temperature and RH of the four green spaces were statistically different at the 0.05 level of significance. In the vertical direction, the average daily temperature of the four green spaces increased with height. The average daily RH of the four green spaces decreased slightly with increased height. During the high temperature period of the day, the average temperature of the lawn and the P. tabulaeformis stand declined with the increased height, but the temperature at the R. pseudoacacia stand and the mixed P. tabulaeformis–R. pseudoacacia stand fluctuated greatly. With regard to the effect of lowering the wind speed, the mixed stand was better than the other green spaces. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the mixed Chinese pine and locust stand was the best choice for the establishment of urban green spaces.
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Spatial distribution patterns and environmental
interpretation of clonal buds
LI Weicheng, SHENG Haiyan
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 449-455.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0073-0
Anthriscus sylvestris, a weed found both in Europe and China, is a kind of representative clustered clonal plant and is a foe on dams and banks. It has been widely investigated in Europe for its powerful progenitive ability and tolerance to severely adverse environments. Our aims were to investigate and quantify its spatial distribution patterns in four types of community habitats, using a clustering method and adjacency lattice established by Greig-Smith. We concluded our environmental interpretation based on canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) appended to a Monte Carlo test with randomized seeding. The results indicate that the buds around the parent roots are in an aggregation distribution pattern in all scales (0.002–5.12 m2), but theoretical distribution fitting, like negative binomial and Poisson distribution, show that some sizes of several sampling locations are out of place. For this, spatial ordination gives a satisfactory answer implying the effect of environmental variables such as depth of humus layer, soil moisture, light condition, disturbance intensity and herb abundance. CCA accounts for 64.7% of the total environmental variation and the remaining variation may be counteracted in those five variances or can be interpreted by other factors like accumulating temperature, annual rainfall and altitude in landscape scale. With the aid of temporal sequencing, the suppressed type II (monodominant) may be the former mode of suppressed type I (stable type), where invasion is done with the help of disturbance from both humans and nature. The abundance of A. sylvestris can add to our cognition in diversity resistance hypothesis and our hypothesis on disturbance before or upon immigration.
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Spatial distribution pattern and dynamics of
the primary population in a natural forest in Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China
HAN Lu, WANG Haizhen, ZHOU Zhengli, LI Zhijun
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 456-461.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0068-x
One 50 m × 50 m standard plot was sampled in a natural forest of Populus euphratica in Awati County, situated at the edge of the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The field investigation was conducted with a contiguous grid quadrate method. By means of a test of variance/mean value ratio, aggregation intensity index and theoretical distribution models, the spatial distribution pattern and the dynamics of primary populations in P. euphratica forest were studied. The results showed that the spatial distribution pattern of two dominant arbor populations conformed to clumped distribution. The aggregation intensity of the P. euphratica population was higher than that of P. pruinosa population. The spatial distribution pattern of two companion plant populations in the shrub layer also conformed to clump type, though the aggregation intensity of Tamarix chinensis was higher. In the herb layer, the distribution patterns of Glycyrrhiza uralensis and Asparagus persicus conformed respectively to a clumped pattern and a random pattern. The results of a Taylor power method test and Iwao’s m*-
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Selective autolysis of protoplasmic components
during development of secondary-phloem sieve-tube elements in
YIN Zengfang, FAN Ruwen
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 462-468.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0045-4
Observing changes in plasma components during the development of sieve-tube elements (SE) in secondary-phloem is very important in the study of their physiological function. We investigated the development of SE in the secondary-phloem of Populus deltoides with the aid of an electron microscope. The developmental process of SE in secondary-phloem can be divided into three stages: immature, mature and degenerated, based on the changes of plasma components and cell structures. The immature stage is the development period before the vacuole membrane was ruptured. The radial extension of cells, cell wall incrassation and generation of plastid sieve elements and P-protein occurred during this period. The mature stage started when the vacuole membrane was ruptured. Selective autolysis of protoplasmic components formed mature SEs, with the characteristics that the organelles, such as dissociative ribosome, Golgi body, endoplasmic reticulum and nuclei were disassembled quickly. Two distinctive ways of nuclear degeneration occur. One is an early degenerated nuclear membrane, with dispersed karyoplasms, joined by P-protein. The other is early agglomerated chromatin and subsequently degenerate karyotin with two clear layer structures in the nuclear membrane. One sign in the degenerated stage is the disassembled plasma membrane. During this stage, plastid membranes become disorganized, the starch grains are dispersed in the chamber of SE and the mitochondria dissembled. The callose appears synchronously in sieve plates and P-protein disaggregates. Opened sieve plates are then formed because of callose autolysis, after the protoplasm disappears completely. Finally, the physiological function of SE is lost.
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A comparison of genetic diversity and differentiation
in five Chinese pines using cpSSR and AFLP markers
LIU Zhan-Lin, YANG Xue
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 469-474.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0074-z
Gene diversity and genetic differentiation in five Chinese pines, Pinus henryi, P. tabulaeformis, P. yunnanensis, P. taiwanensis and P. massoniana, were compared using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and simple chloroplast sequence repeat (cpSSR). High genetic differentiation and median gene diversity with cpSSR markers were found both at population and species level, while median differentiation and higher gene diversity in AFLP data. Measures of subdivision that consider similarity between haplotypes offered better information on the geographic structure of plants than the standard subdivisions. Among several methods analyzed in AFLPs, the square root method provided downwardly biased estimates of the genetic parameters, while the Lynch and Milligan method over-estimated genetic diversity due to a small sample size. The Bayesian statistic was the most accurate and popular method for these dominant species and its value of species differentiation (?B = 0.1035) was close to the parameter given by analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA).
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Mycorrhizal formation of nine ectomycorrhizal
fungi on poplar cuttings
MA Lei, WU Xiaoqin, ZHENG Ling
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 475-479.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0077-9
In order to discover which ectomycorrhizal- (ECM) fungi have better growth-promoting effects on poplars, cuttings from four poplar species were inoculated with nine species of ECM fungi by three methods. We investigated the status of mycorrhizal formation and the effects of these fungi on the growth of the poplars. The results show that Xrocomus chrysentero (Xc), Boletus edulis (Be), Pisolithus tinctorius (Pt) and Laccaria amethystea (La) formed clear ectomycorrhizal symbiosis with the poplar seedlings. Among these four ECM fungi, Xc had the greatest ability to develop mycorrhizae with all four poplar species. Be shows a greater ability to form mycorrhizae with Populus deltoides Bartr cv. ‘Lux’ (Poplar I-69). Pt and La had relatively weaker abilities of colonization. The other five ECM fungal species, i.e., Scleroderma luteus (Sl), Leccinum scabrum (Ls), Boletus speciosus (Bs), Calvatia craniiformis (Cc) and Rhizopogen luteous (Rl) could not easily form mycorrhizae with poplar seedlings grown in sterilized substrates, but could do so in non-sterilized soil. With the method of drilling and injecting liquid inoculum, a simple operation, the mycorrhizal infection rates were higher than with the other two methods, applying solid inoculum as fertilizer at the bottom of the pots and dipping roots in the inoculum slurry. P. simonii Carr. formed mycorrhizae with most of the nine ECM fungi. P. × euramericana (Dode) Guinier cv. ‘San Martino’ (Poplar I-72) and P. deltoids Harvard × P. deltoids Lux (Poplar NL-351) had the highest compatibility with Pt. Poplar I-69 shows the highest compatibility with Xc. The study indicates that the optimal ECM fungi for poplars I-69, I-72 and NL-351 were Be, Xc and Pt, respectively. The optimal fungi for P. simonii Carr. were Xc and Be. These ECM fungi promoted the growth of the poplar seedlings significantly.
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Hydrolysis of bamboo fiber cellulose in formic
acid
SUN Yong, LIN Lu, DENG Haibo, PENG Hong, LI Jiazhe, SUN Runchang, LIU Shijie
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 480-486.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0072-1
Bamboo fiber dissolution and hydrolysis in formic acid were studied. After hydrolysis, formic acid can be recovered in a clean state and reused. Solid water-soluble sugars were obtained. After being dipped into the formic acid solution for 30 min, the bamboo fibers started to swell. After one hour, the bamboo fibers gradually started to dissolve in the formic acid solution. The color of the liquor/solution turned green and dark. In the end, the bamboo fibers became thoroughly dissolved in the liquor after four hours. There was a clear hierarchical tissue structure on the fiber surface, as observed by AFM before treatment. The differential structure disappeared after 30 min of treatment. The fiber surface became plump and glossy. After six hours reaction at 60°C, the solid sugar mixture recovered contained glucose, cellobiose, cellotriose, cellotetrose, cellopentose and cellohexaose. A significant fraction of the sugar products consisted of monomeric glucose. More than 54.5% of the bamboo fiber mass had been transformed into monomeric glucose.
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Fire-retardant and smoke-suppressant performance
of an intumescent waterborne amino-resin fire-retardant coating for
wood
WANG Fengqiang, ZHANG Zhijun, WANG Qingwen, TANG Jiayin
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 487-492.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0075-y
An intumescent waterborne amino-resin fire-retardant coating for wood (C) was synthesized and its fire-retardant and smoke-suppressant properties were investigated. The main film-builder of C was urea-formaldehyde resin blended with polyvinyl acetate resin. The intumescent fire-retardant system of C consisted of guanylurea phosphate (GUP), ammonium polyphosphate (APP), pentaerythritol (PER) and melamine (MEL). Specimens of plywood painted, respectively, with a commercial intumescent fire-retardant coating (A), a synthesized coating (C), and the main film-builder of coating C (B), as well as an unpainted plywood (S-JHB), were analyzed by cone calorimetry (CONE). The results show a marked decrease in the heat release rate (HRR) and the total heat release (THR), an increased mass of residual char (Mass), a marked postponement in time to ignition (TTI) and a reduced carbon monoxide production rate (PCO). The smoke production rate (SPR) and total smoke production (TSP) of the plywood painted with coating C were observed with the CONE test. The overall fire-retardant and smoke-suppressant performance of the synthesized coating C was much better than that of the commercial coating A. The thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) results of coating C and its film-builder B indicated that the thermal degradation process of B was slowed down by the addition of the intumescent fire-retardant system; the increase in the amount of charring of coating C was considerable.
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Characteristics of thermal decomposition of bamboo
with different chemical additives
XU Ming, CHENG Shuna, FU Shenyuan
Front. For. China. 2008, 3 (4): 510-513.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11461-008-0070-3
By means of the analysis of TG-DSC curves, we studied the effect of temperature and several additives, i.e., H2SO4, HCl, NaOH, H2O2 and H3PO4 on the performance of the thermal decomposition of bamboo. The results indicated that the weightlessness of pure bamboo powder may be divided into three stages, up to 700°C. At each stage, the effect of each chemical additive on the weightlessness rate of bamboo was different. In the end, we analyzed the function of additives in practical applications of the thermal decomposition of bamboo.
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