Research progress on vegetation restoration of road slopes in China.

China is the largest country in road construction due to rapid economy growth, which results in a large number of exposed slopes. Vegetation restoration of these road slopes has become the dominant method in ecological restoration. We reviewed research progress from three aspects, including key technologies for road slope vegetation restoration, application of vegetation restoration engineering, and factors influencing the vegetation restoration efforts. The slope protection technologies commonly used in road slope vegetation restoration include soil spraying technology, vegetation concrete slope protection technology, thick base material technology, and hydraulic spraying technology. In engineering applications, slope vegetation has the functions such as soil and water conservation, air purification, and landscape restoration. Currently, the most common community configuration is shrub and grass configuration. The main influencing factors of vegetation restoration on road slopes are climate, soil substrate, slope direction, plant species and community configuration used, human factors, and other natural factors (such as hydrology, altitude, microtopography, and wildlife). Future researches should focus on the mechanisms of different factors affecting road slope vegetation restoration, and study ecological substrates and slope protection technologies, plant species and diverse community configuration models suitable for road slope restoration in different climatic regions and site conditions.

[Response of soil Collembola to nitrogen and phosphorus deposition: A review]. / åœŸå£¤è·³è™«å¯¹æ°®ç£·å »åˆ†å“åº”çš„ç ”ç©¶è¿›å±•.

Collembola are among the most abundant and integral group in soil decomposers. They channel C and nutrients from basic food resources to higher trophic levels, and therefore play an irreplaceable role in the underground food web. Collembola community would be altered dramatically by increasing N and P deposition. However, we still know little about how Collembola respond to N and P inputs, which will largely retard our steps to understand the ecological functions of collembolans, material circulation and energy flow of the underground food web, and even C cycling in terrestrial ecosystem. The different classification rules for Collembola functional groups have led to poor comparability of research results in the literature. This review proposed three taxonomic criteria of Collembola and four common research means on trophic relationships, summarized the mechanisms underlying the responses of Collembola to N and P addition alone and coadded. Overall, Collembola generally shows a negative response to N addition namely community density decreases, while a positive response to P addition in most ecosystems. The situation was more complicated under the combined N and P application. In the future, the research of Collembola response to N and P deposition should focus on the scientific taxa of Collembola functional groups, improving the research methods of trophic structure of Collembola, and the mechanism underlying the impacts of N and P interaction on Collembola community.

[Short-term effects of low intensity thinning simulated by gap on ground microclimate and soil nutrients of pure spruce plantation].

Taking a dense spruce pure plantation as test object and simulating the formation of natural forest gap, this paper studied the effects of low intensity thinning by gap creation on the ground temperature, ground humidity, and nutrient contents in different soil layers of the plantation. In the first year of gap creation, the mean diurnal temperature in the gap across the growth season (May - September) increased, while the mean diurnal humidity decreased. The soil organic matter (SOM) and NH4(+) -N contents in O-horizon (humus layer) increased by 19.62% and 283.85%, and the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and NO3(-) -N contents decreased by 77.86% and 23.60%, respectively. The SOM, total nitrogen (TN), and NO3(-) -N contents in 0-10 cm soil layer increased by 45.77%, 37.14%, and 75.11%, and the NH4(+) -N, DOC, and total phosphorus (TP) contents decreased by 48.56%, 33.33%, and 13.11%, respectively. All the results suggested that low intensity thinning by gap creation could rapidly improve the ground microclimate of the plantation, and consequently, promote the soil microbial activity and mineralization processes in O-horizon, the release of soil nutrients, and the restoration of soil fertility.

[Growth and reproduction of Rosa multibracteata population in Minjiang River dry valley].

Based on large area field survey and sampling plots investigation, this paper analyzed the distribution, growth and reproduction, and spatial differentiation of native Rosa multibracteata population in the dry valley of Minjiang River. The results showed that this shrub was widely distributed within the area about 170 km long and across the altitude between 1 200 m and 2 600 m from Mianchi Town of Wenchuan County to Zhenjiangguan of Songpan Town. The plant height, base diameter, age, canopy area, sprout number per clump, and hip number each cluster of the shrub were averagely (123.33 +/- 3.13) cm, (12.49 +/- 0.40) mm, (3.34 +/- 0.16) a, (1.30 +/- 0.13) m2, (5.07 +/- 0.39) stem/cluster, and (171.47 +/- 25.90) hip/cluster, respectively. Except the sprout number per cluster, all test parameters showed significantly higher values with increasing altitude and latitude, being most likely related to the improvement of water condition. The increasing fruit output and sprouting number with increasing altitude and latitude was closely related to the better growth, and possibly, to the trade-off of sexual and asexual capability of R. multibracteata across the changing environment. The lack of younger clusters in age structure indicated the instability of the population development, but the fact that the population had bigger ratio of older sprouts and bigger age structure with increasing altitude showed the sustainable development of the population. The stronger capability of R. multibracteata in growth, sprouting, and sexual reproduction in the dry valley of Minjiang River provided reliable guarantee for the sustainable development of the population.