Uantitative Ecological Analysis Of Natural Vegetation At Coal Gob Piles Of Datong Mining Areas, Shanxi

Based on the field plant quadrat surveys, the natural vegetation communities of coal gob piles at Datong mining areas, Shanxi were studied by quantitative ecology methodology, such as the classification and ordination of those communities, the species diversity and the niche characteristics of dominant population, etc. The aims of this research are tried to provide the theory basis for the artificial vegetation restoration in coal gob piles, which will be of great benefit for Shanxi and its neighboring areas. The main research contents and the corresponding findings are as following:(1) There are97species of vascular plants, including89kinds of herbs, shrubs,6kinds of plants,2kinds of trees, which belong to76genera and26families in coal gob piles of Datong mining areas. The study indicated that temperate distribution compositions take significant dominant ratio and the flora has fully demonstrated the typical characteristics of the temperate zone of the study area.(2) Acording to the ecological relationship between plant species, plant community and environment, the community types, structure and distributing pattern of the vegetation were analyzed by using TWINSPAN, DCA and so on.①TWINSPAN classified the162quadrats into15associations, and the distribution of the natural vegetation communities could comprehensively reflect the influence of environmental factors. The results showed that the species composition and quantity of plants communities were affected by accumulation time of the coal gob piles;②DCA ordination indicated that the water content of surface weathered materials coal gob piles increased with theirs deposite time, which is the main factor restricting the distribution of the natural vegetation communities. The species in the plant communities are very similar with the ordination graph of plant community types, especially the ordination graph of preponderant, and the distribution of preponderant species in the plant communities determined the distribution pattern of plant community types to a great degree.(3) The species diversity of15natural vegetation communities was studied by using the richness index, diversity index and evenness index. The results showed that:the richness index R0, diversity index H’and dominance was increasing, but evenness was reducing with the succession time extending. The results indicated that with the succession time increased, the community environment has been greatly improved; community species composition changed obviously, community to fit to regional environmental conditions for the stability of community structure development.(4) Niche breadth and niche overlap of15natural vegetation dominant species were measured and analyzed by using Shannon-Wiener index, Levins index and Petraitis index. The results indicated that the niche breadth of Artemisia sacrorum and Setaria viridis were the biggest among the fifteen dominant species that is mainly because these species had extensive adaptability. The niche overlap index indicated that there were large overlaps between species of bread niche breadth with other species, and the narrow niche breadth had small overlaps between species. The reasons are mainly due to these species had a narrow living space and weak abilities to utilize resources. The species with similar niche breadth also have a higher niche overlap.