Effects of environmental factors on quantitative characteristics of woody plant sexual system in Maolan karst forest

doi:10.17520/biods.2022025

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: Plant sexual systems play an important role in community regeneration, adaptability and future development. The purpose of this study is to clarify the quantitative characteristics of karst forest sexual systems and its relationship with environmental factors.

Methods: In this study, the adjacent grid method was used to establish 11 vertical plots from the foot to the top of Baixian Mountain in Maolan and 21 horizontal plots from the middle of the mountain, along the same contour line. The quantitative characteristics of woody plant sexual systems with DBH greater than 1 cm in the sample plots were characterized and analyzed. An independent sample t test was used to analyze in the number and sexual system of plants in the sample plots. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was conducted to explore the correlation between quantitative characteristics of sexual systems and environmental factors.

Results: In the sample plots, there were 14,622 woody plants of 286 species. These species are composed of 156 hermaphroditic (54.5%), 57 monoecious (20.0%) and 73 dioecious (25.5%) species. Vertical sample plots located at higher altitude had a significantly greater number of monoecious species and significantly lower proportion of bisexual species. While sample plots located on the mountain slope had a lower diversity of plant sexual systems. In the horizontal sample plots, there were no obvious patterns observed among the number of individual of plants, species proportion and sexual system diversity index of hermaphrodite plants, monoecious plants and dioecious plants. Independent sample t test showed that there were significant differences in the number of plants and the species proportion between the vertical sample plot and the horizontal sample plots (P < 0.05), but no significant differences were observed in the number of plants nor the proportion between dioecious and hermaphrodite species. RDA showed that environmental factors influence the quantitative characteristics of different sexual systems. Altitude had an extremely significant (P < 0.01) effect and slope position was significant as well (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: The woody plant sexual systems in Maolan karst forest are different from other areas in aspects of richness, diversity, and complexity. Most species populations of woody plant are small and their quantitative distribution characteristics may be the result of adaptation to the heterogeneity of karst habitats.

Key words: karst forest, sexual system, quantitative characteristic, environmental factors, Maolan

Moxu Wu, Mingtai An, Li Tian, Feng Liu. Effects of environmental factors on quantitative characteristics of woody plant sexual system in Maolan karst forest[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2022, 30(11): 22025.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2022025

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2022/V30/I11/22025

Figures/Tables 8

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of vertical and horizontal plots of climax community in Maolan karst forest

Fig. 2 Violin plot of individual number of woody plant sexual system in Maolan karst forest

Fig. 3 Variation in plant individual number (a), species proportion of sexual systems (b), diversity of species (c) and sexual systems (d) in vertical plots in Maolan karst forest

Fig. 4 Variation in plant individual number (a), species proportion of sexual systems (b), diversity of species (c) and sexual systems (d) in horizontal plots in Maolan karst forest

Fig. 5 Violin plots of individual number and proportion of sexual systems in vertical and horizontal plots in Maolan karst forest. ns represents no significant difference between the vertical sample plots and the horizontal sample plots; * represents 0.05 level of significance difference.

Fig. 6 Redundancy analysis of quantitative characteristics between sexual systems and environmental factors. The dotted line in the graph represents the environmental factor, and the solid line represents the quantitative characteristics of the different systems. E: Elevation; SP: Slope position; SA: Slope aspect; SOC: Soil organic carbon; TN: Total nitrogen; TP: Total phosphorus; HN: Number of individual with hermaphroditism; HP: Proportion of hermaphroditism species; HR: Relative abundance of hermaphroditism; MN: Number of individual with monoecy; MP: Proportion of monoecy species; MR: Relative abundance of monoecy; DN: Number of individual with dioecy; DP: Proportion of dioecy species; DR: Relative abundance of dioecy.

Table 1 Results of importance order and significance test level of environmental factors to sexual systems

环境因子 Environmental factors	重要性排序 Importance order	解释量 Explained variance (%)	F	P
海拔 Elevation	1	29.9	12.8	0.002^**
坡位 Slope position	2	9.1	4.3	0.036^*
土壤有机碳 Soil organic carbon	3	2.0	0.9	0.348
全磷 Total phosphorus	4	1.9	0.9	0.382
坡向 Slope aspect	5	1.2	0.6	0.574
全氮 Total nitrogen	6	0.9	0.4	0.62

Table 2 Correlation coefficients between soil factors and topography factors

	有机碳 Organic carbon	全氮 Total nitrogen	全磷 Total phosphorus
海拔 Elevation	0.210	0.049	?0.213
坡位 Slope position	0.315	0.173	?0.115
坡向 Slope aspect	0.165	0.140	0.046

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