Community Ecology
Volume/Issue:
Volume 7: Issue 2
Spatial pattern of water controlled wetland communities on the Sanjiang Floodplain, Northeast China
Authors:
D. Zhou

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H. Gong

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Z. Luan Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Lab of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology 3195 Weishan Road Changchun 130012 P. R. China

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J. Hu Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Lab of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology 3195 Weishan Road Changchun 130012 P. R. China

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F. Wu

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Pages:
223–234
Online Publication Date:
23 Jan 2007
Publication Date:
01 Dec 2006
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/comec.7.2006.2.9
Keywords:
Hydro-ecology; Landscape; Natural reserve; Spatial pattern; Wetland plant
Restricted access

The study site is the Honghe National Nature Reserve, a Ramsar designated site on the Sanjiang Plain in Northeast China. We present results regarding the spatial pattern and structure of plant communities in these most important natural but continually diminishing freshwater wetlands of China to help promote both protection and restoration. By investigating three ecological levels (landscape, ecosystem and community), this paper quantifies the characteristics of spatial pattern with the aim to identify specific ecological correlations with different hydrogeomorphic features. Specifically, the research involves hierarchical mapping of vegetation types by use of remote sensed data, and the coupling of landscape indices with fluvial topographic zones that have been deduced by GIS from DEM. Statistics from historical survey data are also used to measure the degradation of marshes as well as the historical change of the hydrological regime. We found that dominant is the Calamagrostis angustifolia — Carex spp. community type, a wet meadow and marsh complex within the prevailing landscape mosaic of shrubland and meadow. The results suggest that the sites’ hydro-geomorphic character has decisive influence on plant community structure and composition. There is only limited direct human interference in the sites and, as a consequence, the spatial pattern of vegetation distribution is natural. However, changes to the hydrological regime as the result of extensive irrigation activity in the surrounding area has led to rapid degradation of marsh wetlands within the sites, which threatens the ecological status in this storehouse of “Natural Genes” in the reserve.

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Cover Community Ecology
Community Ecology An Interdisciplinary Journal Reporting Progress in Community and Population Studies
Print ISSN:
1585-8553
Online ISSN:
1588-2756

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Community Ecology
Language English
Size A4
Year of
Foundation		 2000
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 3
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
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Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
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Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1585-8553 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2756 (Online)

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