Elevational diversity of arrow bamboo (Fargesia spathacea) communities on Mount Shennongjia in Central China

Abstract

Altitudinal changes in species richness, species diversity, species evenness, life-form spectrum, and community structure of arrow bamboo (Fargesia spathacea) were studied within 11 plots from 1 500 m to 2 600 m asl on Mount Shennongjia in Central China. From the lowest plot (1 680 m) to the highest one (2 570 m), vascular plants declined from 30 to 7 species, following a linear model ofY=55.99-1.83X (d.f.=9,F-value=48.64,r ²=0.84,P<0.001); species diversity, reduced from 3.13 to 1.78, following a linear model ofY=4.67–0.10X (d.f.=9,F-value=22.82,r ²=0.72,P=0.001); species evenness varied from 0.83 to 0.99, but presented little relationship to the altitude (r=0.112,P=0.742). In the life-form spectra, with the increase of altitude, the percentage of annual plants (r=0.60), underground bulb perennials (r=0.40), and big trees (r=0.35) tended to increase; shrubs (r=−0.52) and middle-sized trees (r=−0.45) tended to decline; perennial grasses (r=0.04) and semi-shrubs (r=0.03) were not strongly related to the altitudinal gradient. Arrow bamboo communities could be classified into five groups: bamboo under evergreen broad-leaved forest, under deciduous broad-leaved forest, under temperate coniferous forest, under cold-temperate coniferous and mixed forest, and pure bamboo community.

Keywords

Species richness / Species diversity / Life-form / Vascular plant / Altitude / S718.54 / A