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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2013, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (6): 11-20.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb20130602

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Differences in the impacts of flooding frequency and duration on riparian vegetation and soil in the Lower Tarim River

FU Jin-yi1,2, XU Hai-liang1, ZHAO Xin-feng1, BAI Yuan1,2, WANG Xi-yi1,2   

  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology and Desert Environment, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China;
    2.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Online:2013-12-20 Published:2013-12-20

Abstract: To analyse the impacts of frequency and duration of flooding on the regional riparian vegetation and soil, a field survey of riparian vegetation and soil was carried out in selected plots with different flooding frequencies and durations in the Lower Tarim River. 1) The importance values of annual and perennial herbs increased with flooding disturbance. After flooding, perennial herbs dominated instead of shrubs and trees in two sample plots of flooding frequency and in three sample plots of flooding duration. 2) In the flooding frequency plots, the one flooded many times in many years had the richest diversity with values of Simpson index, Shannon-Wiener index and Margalef index of 0.523, 0.979 and 1.023, respectively. 3) In the flooding duration plots, the ones flooded for 10-20 days and 20-30 days had the largest diversity indexes. The former had the largest Margalef index (0.863), and the latter had the largest Simpson index and Shannon-Wiener index (0.451 and 0.777 respectively). 4) Flooding reduced the surface soil conductivity very significantly, and was at a minimum in the sample plots flooded once to twice per year (1.148 ms/cm) and flooded for 10-20 days (1.155 ms/cm). The organic matter of the surface soil increased in the sample plots flooded many times in many years and in those flooded for 5-10 days (values of 11.577 and 8.770 g/kg respectively). The organic matter of other sample plots were all less than that of the control plots. Accordingly, to encourage vegetation restoration in the Lower Tarim River, it is advisable to proceed with flooding many times for many years with a duration of 10-30 days per time.

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