The Suitability Of The Plantation Recovered As A Habitat Of Giant Panda

Based on the vegetation investigation of the plantation forests in Wanglang Natural Reserve, Sichuan Province of southwestern China, the community structures and the feeding bamboo characteristics respectively in plantation forests, secondary forests, and primary forests were analyzed in this paper. The purpose of the study was to provide the scientific basis for testing whether plantation forests had been recovered to a suitable habitat for giant panda. The results showed that:(1)In respect to species composition, the plantation forests generally were pure forests with single species. In the tree layer, the plantation dominated this layer with simple composition. There were various types of species in the shrub layer, but not with much account in numbers, and it lacked feeding bamboos, which were food resources for giant panda.(2) The plantation forests could not be useful to giant panda. The species diversity, species dominance, canopy coverage and the tree number in the plantation forests were all higher than those in the primary forests. Whereas, the community height, maximum DBH, average tree DBH and habitat maturity in the plantations were all lower than those in the primary forests. The plantation forests needs to be carefully cultivated at the early stage and a long restoring time.(3) With the variation of height and diameter class structure, species abundance of plantation forests, primary secondary forests and primeval forest presented similarly. And it was characterized as follows:smaller diameter classes trees in the plantation, secondary forest and primary forests had the similar species richness, while abundance distribution differed among different diameter classes and height classes. Larger trees (DBH>30cm) and higher trees (H>15m) were relatively scarce in tree layer of the plantation forests, and the individual abundances in this layer differed a lot in the smaller (DBH<10cm) and shorter trees (H<10m). Competition stress and mortality in the plantation forests were much higher than the ones in primeval forests and the species composition varied widely between the two forest environments.(4) In addition, the natural regeneration of bamboo under the plantation was relatively poor and with lower indexes in every aspect and the height and coverage of human-planted Fargesiadenudate could not meet the needs of giant panda. What’s worse, the plantation forests would bring about a second disturbance. The bamboo in secondary forests regenerated better, and thus it had become the most suitable and dominant food of the giant panda. Results showed that the community structures between the plantation forests and primary forests had great difference. In the plantation forests, tree density was larger, DBH varied slightly and the coverage rate was higher, so the growth of the bamboos underground was limited. Besides, the natural regenerated bamboos were scarce with lower biomass and poor regenerated ability. According to the results in this paper, the plantation forests had not been recovered into a suitable habitat for giant pandas since the height and coverage of the planted bamboos had not reached the standard level upon which the bamboos become the desirable food for them. What’s more, the activity of giant panda was negatively influenced by the severe disturbances in this region. The results provided conditions for investigating growth status and restoration of plantation forests in giant panda habitat and basis for artificial measures to restore the giant panda habitat.