Health Evaluation of Plant Community Configuration Structure in Karst Rocky Desertification Area

Abstract

For vegetation restoration and early species configuration in karst rocky desertification areas, method of "spatial series in replace of time series" (D. Muller-DoMbois, 1986) was adopted to conduct community surveys and site type divisions at different succession stages (Yu Lifei, 1998) for 15 counties (cities, districts) in 5 karst rocky desertification areas. At the same time, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation are taken to evaluate health of the early plant community configuration structure with weak, medium, and strong potential for vegetation restoration in the karst rocky desertification area. The results show that: (1) Site type subtype with weak, medium, and strong potential level of vegetation restoration possibly has 2106 community structure configuration combinations. (2) Optimal configuration health status of plant communities with weak potential for vegetation restoration: 8 groups are healthy, 378 groups are relatively healthy, 1148 groups area general, and 572 groups are ill. (3) Optimal configuration health status of plant communities with medium potential for vegetation restoration: 12 groups are healthy, 489 groups are relatively healthy, 1161 groups are general, and 444 groups are ill. (4) Optimal configuration health status of plant communities with strong potential for vegetation restoration: 10 groups are healthy, 552 groups are relatively healthy, 1120 groups are general, and 424 groups are ill. Combination of healthy community configuration is the optimal combination under different restoration potential levels, that is, the optimal configuration.