Forest recovery on abandoned logging roads in a tropical montane rain forestof Hainan Island, China

摘要

In this study we report the work in recovering forest stands on Hainan Island in South China; wecompared the community composition, structure, and plant functional traits (seed mass and wooddensity) on three positions of abandoned logging roads: road track (RT), road up-slope edge (UE) androad down-slope edge (DE). The results showed that species richness, stem abundance, basal area, stemsize, and canopy height were all lowest on the RT among the three road positions. Species richness andabundance of midstorey and canopy trees were higher on the UE than on the DE. The mean stem size washigher on the DE than the UE, but no significant difference existed in canopy height on the two roadedges. The different road positions were characterized by varied species assemblages. Indicator speciesanalysis further indicated that 76.9%, 15.4% and 7.7% of the species showed affinity to UE, DE, and RT,respectively. The RT had more small-seeds but less soft-wood trees than the two road edges. The UE andDE had no significant difference in tree seed class distribution. Compared with the DE, however, the UEhad a higher and lower proportion of hard wood in terms of species richness and stem abundance,respectively. Our results indicated that the composition and structure of stands on the abandonedlogging roads had significantly changed in comparison with the stands around it.