Abstract
Several plant micro-reserves were established to preserve the vegetation in local mountain areas during the construction of the Yanqing competition zone of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The spatial patterns of the main species in one of the micro-reserves and the factors affecting these patterns were characterized in this study. The distribution of arbor species was found to be mostly aggregated, especially at fine scales (< 5 m). Minor species were found to be more aggregated than the major species in each forest layer. The spatial patterns were found to be affected by habitat heterogeneity, intraspecific relationships, interspecific competition, and seed dispersal limitation. Habitat heterogeneity was found to affect large-scale spatial patterns, and its effects were observed throughout population development. Interspecific competition is another factor affecting the distribution of the species, and its effects were stronger during the later stages of population development. Habitat heterogeneity was found to affect competition among species and is key for species coexistence. Both these processes are affected by the seed dispersal limitation, and intraspecific relationships are a legacy of seed dispersal. The point patterns can be used as a tool for the initial assessment of the status of communities within micro-reserves. The consideration of these relationships in the development, management, and formulation of policies for micro-reserves in mountainous areas will facilitate the achievement of conservation goals. The careful consideration of habitat conditions when selecting sites for micro-reserves establishment can promote species conservation.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Program of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Project: Monitoring and Evaluation of Ecological Protection Works of Competition Zone in Beijing Mountainous Area of 2022 Olympics Winter Games (Z181100005318004). We gratefully acknowledge Li Meng-jiao, Liu Xin-yu, Yuan Shuai, Xiao Jia-wei, Li Guo-dong for participating in the field investigation, and Nie Shun-xin and others for their assistance in the investigation. We also appreciate the convenience provided by Beijing Enterprises J.O Construction Co., Ltd. and other relevant organizations in the Yanqing competition zone for the inspection.
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WANG Jian-yong: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Visualization, Writing- original draft, Writing-review & editing. ZHANG Zhi-xiang: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing-review & editing.
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Wang, Jy., Zhang, Zx. Spatial patterns of the main trees in a plant micro-reserve constructed in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics mountainous competition zone. J. Mt. Sci. 20, 2228–2241 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-022-7612-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-022-7612-2