Comparison of natural community characteristics of a typical colored tree species, Acer tutcheri at three sites in Guangdong

Abstract

Acer tutcheri is a typical native tree species in the Pearl River Delta region. Studies on the characteristics of the natural community is useful to provide some scientific proofs for the reasonable community construction of A. tutcheri scenic forest in this district. Sampling plots were set up in the A. tutcheri natural communities of Guangdong Nanling National Nature Reserve, Heishiding Nature Reserve and Shenzhen Dapeng Peninsula National Geopark Qiniangshan. Comparative analyses of their species composition, species community structure, species diversity and interspecific association were conducted. The results show that the number of species in three regions was Nanling >Heishiding >Qiniangshan. The average tree height of A. tutcheri in Heishiding is 15.1 m, and showed the best red leaf landscape effect than the other two sites. Tree height of A. tutcheri, lower than 2.0 m is 52% of all trees and there is relatively abundant small size trees in Nanling. The diameter class structure of Nanling showed the pattern with multi peaks, while Heishiding and Qiniangshan showed inverted "J" type distribution pattern. The 105 species pair correlation of 15 species of woody plants in three regions showed a significant positive correlation. These results reflect the relatively high diversity of Acer tutcheri community in Nanling. A. tutcheri community environmental adaptability and landscape effect is relatively better in Heishiding. A. tutcheri seedlings is relatively rare in Qiniangshan. Therefore, the construction of the transformation of A. tutcheri scenic forest in the Pearl River Delta should consider the seedling plantation and the tree arrangement, with the reference of A. tutcheri communities in Nanling and Heishiding, in order to improve A. tutcheri scenic forest species diversity and landscape effect.