Recreational Impacts On Soil And Vegetation In Jinyun Mountain And Its Management Strategies

Recreational impacts on the soil and vegetation in Jinyun Mountain were studied from the line and surface aspects and the management strategies were put forward. The results showed that the recreational activities had impacted greatly the soil and vegetation of the footpath and the different succession phases. The main conclusions were summarized as follows:1. Recreational impacts on soil of footpath in Jinyun MountainThe recreational activities resulted in great impacts on the soil of footpath in Jinyun Mountain. The investigation revealed that the soil hardness, the deadwood thickness, the humus thickness and the soil impact index in the same footpath changed with the distance increase from the footpath, and stabilized beyond a certain distance, which was consistent with the trampling intension. The impacts on the soil hardness, the deadwood thickness, the humus thickness and the soil impact index were changed in the different disturbed footpath: the high-disturbed area > medium-disturbed area > low-disturbed area > non-disturbed area, which was also consistent with the developmental conditions of tourism. The impacts on the soil hardness, the thickness of the deadwood, the humus thickness and the soil impact index in the footpath with flagstone were greater than that in footpath without flagstone, which resulted from the fact that the footpaths with flagstone were the main roads to the scene pot.2. Recreational impacts on vegetation of footpath in Jinyun MountainThe recreational activities had great impacts on the vegetation of footpath in Jinyun Mountain. The results showed that the coverage under arbor, the species numbers, the height of the shrub, the height of the grass and the index of vegetation integer in the same footpath changed with the distance increase from the footpath, and stabilized beyond a certain distance, which were consistent with the intension of disturbances. The recreational impacts on the coverage under arbor, the species numbers, the height of the shrub, the height of the grass and the index of vegetation integer were decreased sequentially with the disturbed intensions (the high-disturbed area > medium-disturbed area > low-disturbed area > non-disturbed area), which were also consistent with the tourism development. The impacts on the coverage under arbor, the species numbers, the height of the shrub, the height of the grass and the index of vegetation integer of the footpath with flagstone were greater than that in footpath without flagstone, which resulted from the fact that the tourist number on footpaths with flagstone were higher than other footpaths.3. Recreational impacts on vegetation and soil of different succession phases in Jinyun MountainThe recreational activities had some impacts on the evergreen broadleaf forest and the needle-broadleaf mixed forest in Jinyun Mountain. The recreational activities had the trend to occur in sunny, flat and low elevation area in the evergreen broadleaf forest while in shade, steep and high elevation area inneedle-broadleaf mixed forest. In the evergreen broadleaf forest, the traversing of the tourists was limited by the high coverage and the complicated composition of vegetation in shade, steep and high elevation area. In the needle-broadleaf mixed forest, the activities of tourists had concentrated in the shade area in order to avoid the intensive sunlight. The recreational activities had made the soil tighter, decreased the thickness of humus and deadwood and decreased significantly the species diversity in the both forest. In the evergreen broadleaf forest, the recreational activities decreased the coverage of arbor, increased the coverage of shrub and reduced the coverage of grass and the total coverage. In the needle-broadleaf mixed forest, recreational activities had the trend to increase the coverage and height of every layer, increase the numbers and composition of species enduring trample. In conclusion, the recreational activities had disadvantages to the development of vegetation and soil. 4...