Abstract:

A frozen rain and snow disaster occurred from January to February 2008 caused an extensive and varied damage to the forest ecosystems across southern China. The objective of this study is to determine the response of dominant species of evergreen broad-leaved forest to the frozen and snow disaster in Nanling Mountain. Four plots were set to analyze the relationship between sprouting and damaged types, diameter classes, and species composition. The results showed that more than 72.00% of damaged dominant species could sprout. Sprouting rate in the tree layer was higher than that in the shrub layer, guaranteeing for recovery and reestablishment of forest ecological system in Nanling Mountain. There was variation in sprouting rate for different damaged dominant species. Sprouting rate of lodged plants was the highest (100%). In shrub layer Hamamelidaceae plants had the lowest sprouting rate and in tree layer Lauraceae plants the lowest sprouting rate. Sprouting characters of damaged species showed different patterns dependent on harvesting, slash and burn cultivation. Based on this study, we suggest that in the forests frequently subjected to natural disturbance in the subtropical China, Eurya muricata, Castanopsis carlesii, and Daphniphyllum macropodum should be selected for artificial rehabilitaton of the disturbed areas which is beneficial to keeping the stability of layer structures and species composition of the forests.

Key words: Nanling Mountain, natural disturbance, percentage of spout, mean number of sprout, Castanopsis forest