Development of plant communities after restoration of the Antaibao mining site, China

Abstract

To investigate the dynamic changes in the artificial vegetation in an abandoned mining site, we analyzed the relationships among community types, environmental variables and community structure in the process of vegetation restoration in the Antaibao mining site, China by survey of the communities and use of biological dating methods. By means of the quantitative classification method (two-way indicator-species analysis, TWINSPAN) and the ordination technique (de-trended correspondence analysis, DCA; and de-trended canonical correspondence analysis, DCCA), the plant communities were classified into seven groups: community I, Robinia pseudoacacia + Pinus tabulaeformis - Caragana korshinskii - Agropyron cristatum; community II, Robinia pseudoacacia - Hippophae rhamnoides - Artemisia capillaries; community III, Ulmus pumila - Elaeagnus angustifolia - Artemisia capillaries;community IV, Caragana korshinskii - Agropyron cristatum + Artemisia capillaries; community V, Hippophae rhamnoides - Elymus dahuricus;community VI, Elaeagnus angustifolia + Hippophae rhamnoides - Brassica jucea;community VII, Hippophae rhamnoides + Elaeagnus angustifolia - Salsola collina. We conclude that the community types and diversity are mainly influenced by the succession time and the soil organic matter content. The forest community is more adaptable to the special inhabitation than the shrub community.

Key words： mining site; plant community succession; recovery of vegetation; restoration ecology; species diversity; Shanxi

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30870399), The Project of The Education Committee of Beijing (KE200410028014), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 20060400636).

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