Changes of plant species diversity and biomass with reclaimed marshes restoration

Journal of Forestry Research volume 32, pages133–142(2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Wetland restoration had been implemented for more than two decades in Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. To assess the restoration efficiency of wetland vegetation, we investigated plants composition of community, plant species diversity and aboveground biomass of restored sites in a chronosequence of restoration (1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 15 and 25 years) in the Sanjiang Nature Reserve. As comparison, we also investigated the same factors in a cropland and a natural marsh adjacent to the restored sites. The results showed that wetland plant species can invade quickly after croplands were abandoned when there were suitable hydrology conditions. On the early stage of the restoration, weeds were main plant species in the restored sites. Wetland species appeared at the same time but differed from the dominant species from the adjacent natural marshes. Common native wetland species could dominance the community after 3-year restoration. Species richness and diversity increased on the early stage, and then decreased to the similar level of the natural marsh with the extension of restoration. Plant biomass could restore easier than the species composition and diversity. Our results indicated that plant species composition and diversity of abandoned reclaimed wetlands can restore gradually by natural succession in Sanjiang Plain. However, 25-year restoration site had similarity index of only 56% with the natural marsh, which revealed that two decades are not enough for complete restoration of vegetation.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Qingmin Meng in Heilongjiang Vocation Institute of Ecological Engineering for her help in plant species identification.

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Author notes

  1. Xin Jin and Xiaoxin Sun have contributed equally to this research.

Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Jin, Xiaoxin Sun, Haixing Li, Danhui Zhao & Xiuling Man

  2. Heilongjiang Sanjiang Plain Wetland Ecosystem Research Station, Fuyuan, 156500, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoxin Sun & Xiuling Man

  3. Panjin Institute of Wetland Science, Panjin, 124000, People’s Republic of China

    Dong Li

  4. School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550025, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Wang

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  1. Xin Jin
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  2. Xiaoxin Sun
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  4. Danhui Zhao
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  5. Dong Li
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Correspondence to Xiuling Man.

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Project funding: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870443), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2572016CA03), and the Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Funds (LBH-Z16014).

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Corresponding editor: Yu Lei.

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Jin, X., Sun, X., Li, H. et al. Changes of plant species diversity and biomass with reclaimed marshes restoration. J. For. Res. 32, 133–142 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-020-01104-y

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Keywords

  • Plant species composition
  • Richness index
  • Shannon–Wiener index
  • Similarity index
  • Wetland restoration