Research On Characteristics Of Ecological Environment Of Giant Panda Habitat In The Qinling Mountains

Giant panda, which has been called the national treasure and living fossil, is a specific and wild rare animal in our country. It is the oldest species in the world, and it also is one of the most endangered species at the same time.The existence state of the giant panda attracts attention both at home and abroad. The Qinling Mountains is the most north boundary that giant panda is distributed in our country, praised as the natural sanctuary of the giant panda. In recent years, because of the excessive use of the natural resources, the human activity has destroyed the habitat of the giant panda greatly, causing a large amount of lose and fragmentation in the habitat of giant panda. The population quantity of the giant panda is reduced rapidly, and the area of habitat become smaller and smaller. In order to make the feasible protection and management plan of giant panda habitat, It is imperative to study giant panda habitat analysis and vegetation characteristic.This text focuses on Taibai, Laoxiancheng, Guanyinshan, Foping and Zhouzhi, etc. protected area for key research region in the Qinling Mountains. Using methods such as typical field polt, ecological analysis and statistics, we have researched characteristics of each environmental factor giant of giant panda habitat, discussed and analyzed the division of the habitat vegetation type and main characteristics of communities, and we also contrast the difference of characteristics of habitat structure( core region, buffer region and potential region). The main result studied is as follows:1. There are suitable and unique habitat types for giant panda in the Qinling Mountains. The habitat is located in Mid-west and 105o29′29″~108o47′57″E, 32o50′18″~34o00′18″N, distributed between the ranges of 1100-3000m at altitude. The topography and geomorphology is complicated, and mainly made up of middle and subalpine mountains. The climate belongs to the moist and semi-moist climate of carrying out the transition from the temperate zone to the subtropical zone, receiving the double influence of the continental climate and the monsoon climate, various meteorological elements of different areas demonstrate certain difference in different seasons. Many types of little acid soil is developmented in distribution area of giant panda. The soil fertility state is good, and it offers the good condition for growth of habitat vegetation and bamboo forest. The water quality of habitat river is good, and it is polluted relatively light due to minerals and poisonous heavy metal, or is not polluted.2. According to the important value of each species investigated in the sample plots, the vegetation community of giant panda habitat of the Qinling Mountains is divided into 4 vegetation type groups, 8 vegetation types, 9 vegetation subtypes, 13 formation groups, 30 formations, 35 associations. There are Betula albo-sinensis, Pinus armandii, Abies fargesii, Quercus aliena var. acuteserrota, Quercus variabilis as dominant species of arbor layers in accordance with important value, secondly for Salix spp., Acer spp., Corylus spp., Populus spp. and Pinus tabulaefomis. etc. There are Fargesia qinlingensis, Corylus helerophylla, Litsea tsinlingensis as dominant species of shrub layer, secondly for Lonicera szechuanica, Rubus spp., Bashania fargesii and Euonymus alatus etc. There are Carex lanceolata, Cyperus spp. and Duchesnea indica etc. as dominant species of herb layers. The habitat vegetation predominate with coniferous forest and broad-leaved forest. It has fuzzy community boundary and obviously zonation. There are many vegetations closed to distribution of giant panda, include 10 vegetation types such as Form. Larix chinensis, Form. Abies fargesii, Form. Pinus armandii, Form. Pinus tabulaeformis, Form. Pinus spp. and Quercus spp., Form. Pinus spp. and Betula spp., Form. Quercus aliena var. acuteserrota, Form. Quercus variabilis, Form. Populus davidiana, Form. Betula albo-sinensis etc. and 2 Bamboo forest such as Form. Bashania fargesii, Form. Fargesia qinlingensis. It has obviously difference with characteristics of dominant species and community structure among each vegetation community. And it has obviously transitional properties in the cross-zone of vegetation communities.3. The composition of plant community is complicated in habitat, the distribute of family and genus are dispersion and the floristic characteristics of forest plant is significantly show a transition from warm temperate zone to subtropical zone. In different vegetation communities, the herb layer is predominated by one or some plants, such as Carex lanceolata, Cyperus spp., Duchesnea indica, Pteridophyta spp., etc., and the shrub layer is dominated by one or some, such as Fargesia qinlingensis, Corylus helerophylla, Litsea tsinlingensis, Bashania fargesii, Rosa tsinlingensis, Viburnum dilatatum, Euonymus alatus, Spiraea spp., etc.. The diversity index of all layers in different vegetation communities in habitat is show that shrub layer >herb layer >arbor layer. At the same time, the general diversity of communities have a trend that is broadleaf forest >mixed forest >coniferous forest, where Form. Populus davidiana has the highest of the species richness index and diversity index, Form.Betula albo-sinensis has the highest community evenness, and Form.Larix chinensis is lowest one in all the diversity index. 4. The biomass order of main vegetation communities in habitat is: Form. Abies fargesii, Form. Pinus armandii >Form. Betula albo-sinensis, Form. Populus davidiana, Form. Pinus tabulaeformis >Form. Quercus aliena var. acuteserrota, Form. Pinus spp. and Betula spp., Form. Pinus spp. and Quercus spp., Form. Quercus variabilis >Form. Larix chinensis. The general biomass of communities have show the feature that coniferous forest is higher than broad-leaved forest. In the spatial distribution, the community biomass has a general trend that is increasing with altitude increased. It reaches the largest at altitude of about 2700m(the distributional stage of Abies fargesii), then gradually decrease and dropped sharply.in the mountains above the alpine forest line.5. It exhibited a very great difference among the core region, the buffer region and potential region on the habitat factors, where have a great difference in the vegetation type, constructive species and canopy density in the arbor layer, the dominant species and coverage in shrub and herb layers, bamboo species and coverage and altitude, which are the main factors determine the vegetation type in different structural region of habitat. The characteristics of vegetation type and geographical factors in different habitats show some correlations. The habitat factor of three structural region show a transition property in spatial. In natural disturbance, the core region, the buffer region and potential region have the similar disturbance intensity, however, it show that potential area> the buffer zone>the core zone when have human disturbance.At same time, cutting, grazingin , cutting bamboo and digging shoot, picking medicine herb are the most seriously factors in disturbance intensity of the habitat.