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Using ecological memory as an indicator to monitor the ecological restoration of four forest plantations in subtropical China

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Abstract

A large area of plantations has been established worldwide and especially in China. Evaluating the restoration status of these plantations is essential for their long-term management. Based on our previous work, we used an ecological memory (EM) approach to evaluate four 26-year-old plantations that represent four common kinds of plantations in subtropical China, i.e., mixed broad-leaved plantation (MBP), mixed coniferous plantation (MCP), eucalyptus plantation (EP), and mixed legume plantation (MLP). Comparing them with the regional climax community, i.e., monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest (BF), all four plantations accumulated nearly the same pattern of EM during succession. EM was >50 % for soil minerals, light conditions, soil age, soil animals, and soil microbes. EM was about 25 % for soil pollen and 10 % for birds, soil seed bank, and plant species. The total EM value of the four plantations ranged from 50.96 to 52.54, which indicated that all four plantations were in the regional, natural trajectory of succession and between the early and medium successional stages. The results indicated that natural succession processes are unlikely to be accelerated by planting late-stage tree species without sufficient EM. The results also demonstrated that all four plantations were in positive successional trajectories, and the positive succession dynamics were greater in the MLP and MCP. We suggest that the entire natural succession trajectory be used to evaluate the restoration of a site and that the ultimate restoration target be divided into several milestones along the reference trajectory to monitor progress. Forest restoration may be accelerated by starting with a minimum dynamic unit supporting sufficient EM.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 31170493). We thank the staff at Heshan and Dinghushan National Field Research Station of Forest Ecosystem for providing the experimental facilities, and we especially thank Yongbiao Lin, Xingquan Rao, and Yibin Ma for their help in field investigation. We also thank Bruce Jaffee for English editing, Junwu Shu for soil pollen identification, and Huilan Zhang for technical help. At last, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their professional and critical comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510650, Guangzhou, China

    Zhongyu Sun, Hai Ren & Jun Wang

  2. School of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada

    Val Schaefer

  3. Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, USDA FS, Asheville, NC, 28804, USA

    Qinfeng Guo

Authors
  1. Zhongyu Sun
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  2. Hai Ren
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  3. Val Schaefer
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  4. Qinfeng Guo
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  5. Jun Wang
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Correspondence to Hai Ren.

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Sun, Z., Ren, H., Schaefer, V. et al. Using ecological memory as an indicator to monitor the ecological restoration of four forest plantations in subtropical China. Environ Monit Assess 186, 8229–8247 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-4000-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-4000-6

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