Studies On Traveling Influence On Ecological Environment In Lishan Natural Reserve

Lishan Mountain is located in the eastern of Zhongtiao Ranges in Shanxi, at 35°16'-35°27'N, 111°51'-112°30'E. Lishan Provincial Natural Reserve was authorized by Shanxi Government in 1983, and Lishan National Natural Reserve was authorized by the State Council of the People's Republic of China in 1988. It is the largest Natural Reserve with 24,800 hm2 area totally, rich plant and animal resource, in Shanxi. Because of its abundant natural scenery and cultural scenery, it has been one of the famous traveling spots in Sanxi.Tourism in Lishan Natural Reserve began in the late of 1990s. With the development of continuous tourism, the ecological environment has been damaged in some degrees in Lishan Nature Reserve. In this study, based on the results of tourist market analysis and tourism environment carrying capacity analysis, the atmospheric environment quality, water environment quality and the vegetation resource were investigated so as to explore the traveling disturbance on ecological environment in Lishan Nature Reserve.Although the number of tourists was increasing, the increasing tendency was slow relatively. In recent years, the number of travelers had raised from 8600 persons/a in 2000 to 12 000 persons/a in 2004 in Lishan Natural Reserve. There were more tourists on the May 1st Day than other times over a year. After the most tourists (2000 persons/d) on May 1st Day in 2000, the tourists were about 1000-1200 persons/d in May 1st Day fastigium. Compared with other mountain scenery spots, the current tourist market has a biger potential in Lishan Nature Reserve.The results of tourism environment carrying capacity (TECC) test showed that there were significant differences among different unit, such as air environment carrying capacity (AECC), water environment carrying capacity (WECC), economic environment carrying capacity (EECC), social environment carrying capacity (SECC) and so on. Among these TECC units, AECC was the largest, and was 23,397 persons/d for TSP and 48,125 persons/d for SO2. SECC and SRCC were the second, and were 1,000 and 6,400 persons/d respectively. WECC was the small which was a limited factor of TECC,4,416 persons/d for CODCr and 1,830 persons/d for NH3-N. According to the statistical information of tourism, the number of tourists was far beyond the TECC of Lishan Natural Reserve.The quality of air and water environment met the requirements of the first class of national Air Environment Quality Standard and Surface Water Environment Quality Standard, respectively, in Lishan Natural Reserve. The SO2, NOX and TSP increased but not significantly at the peak of the tourism. Some of polluted water indicators tended to rise with the increase of the tourism intensity, such as NH3-N, LAS and BOD, however, they did not exceed the value of the first class of national standard. All of polluting indicators in the drinking water meet the requirements of first class of Drinking Water Environment Quality Standard except E. coli in the reserve.The vegetation resource was damaged by traveling in the reserve, especially in Xixia floodplain. The result showed that traveling disturbance to the vegetation coverage was significant (P<0.05) in the floodplain. Although the change tendency of the number of species was not significant (P>0.05), the change tendency of dominant species composition was obviously. The more the traveling disturbance, the smaller the vegetation coverage, the stronger the status and function of the androphile. The result by TWINSPAN and DCA analysis agreed with it.Traveling had more influence on herbs than that on shrub and arborous. The coverage in some quadrats was 5%-80%. Even some samples have few herbs. Traveling had no significant influence on the species composition of herb vegetation in Baiyun cave scenery spot.Shunwangping subalpine meadow is at 2,358m above sea level and is the highest peak in the reserve. The results showed that tourism activities affected in meadow. Firstly, the traveling led vegetation coverage reducing. The nearer the distance away from the traveling paths, the more the traveling disturbance, and the coverage of vegetation was lower. Secondly, traveling activities led species diversity change. The main influence on the vegetation by traveling were:1) The dominant species of indigenous plant were replaced by accompanying species.2) The proportion of therophytes raised and the proportion of permanent plants inclined.3) The richness indices and the diversity indices increased, and the evenness indices were stable relatively. Thirdly, traveling interference has influenced on the interspecific relationship in some degrees, however, it did not lead to change of interspecific association obviously in the meadow. The farther the distance has, the bigger the randomness of interspecific association was. The results ofχ2 test were consistent with that by Pearson's correlation coefficient test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient test for the interspecific relationship.According to the tourism interference on ecological environment the reserve, some strategies for the management, monitoring and protection of the tourism and plant resources were discussed, including:1) Some tourism facilities such as fence should be built so as to limit the scope of tourist activities, to prevent from the traveling path widener and new path appeared and protect vegetation from trample.2) Establishing the environment facilities, such as sewage treatment facilities to improve environment carrying capacity and the ecological environment.3) Strengthen administrative supervision and management to forbid some actives, such as picking, plucking, hunting, selling in order to protect the vegetation 4) Enhance environment education to manger, operator, tourists and local resident so that all tourism passengers take part in the protection activity for eco-environment and vegetation in the reserve.