Succession of a natural desert vegetation community after long-term fencing at the edge of a desert oasis in northwest China.

Fencing is the most economical method of restoring degraded desert ecosystems, and plays an important role in promoting plant community diversity and productivity, as well as stable ecosystem structure and function. In this study, we selected a typical degraded desert plant community (-) on the edge of a desert oasis in the Hexi Corridor in northwest China. We then investigated succession in this plant community and corresponding changes in soil physical and chemical characteristics over 10 years of fencing restoration to analyze the mutual feedback mechanisms.

[Morphology of seeds across different stand ages in sandy-hilly region of northwest Shanxi Province, China].

We investigated the morphological characteristics of seeds with three different sizes under plantations with different stand ages (6, 12, 18, 40 and 50 years old) in the typical sandy-hilly region of northwest Shanxi Province, to explore the restoration potential of artificial vegetation from the perspective of reproduction strategies. The results showed that seed production of plantation increased with stand age, reaching the maximum (584 grain·plant) in 50-year-old stand. Seed length, seed width, and seed shape index decreased with stand age, reaching the minimum (5.

[Growth and reproduction dynamics of different-aged artificial in sandy-hilly region of northwest Shanxi Province, China].

The sandy-hilly region of northwest Shanxi is a typical fragile agro-pastoral ecotone in north China. With the artificial at 0 (the uncultivated land), 6, 12, 18, 40 and 50 years-old in the typical sandy-hilly region of northwest Shanxi as the subjects, we investigated soil moisture, aboveground and belowground biomass, individual morphological characteristics, growth, reproduction, and photosynthetic physiological characteristics of different-aged , with the aim to evaluate the long-term growth and reproductive dynamic characteristics of artificial The results showed that soil moisture was significantly affected by stand ages. Soil moisture was low under the 6-year-old plantation.

[Effects of sodium salt stress on seed germination of typical annuals in a desert-oasis ecotone of Hexi Corridor, China].

We assessed the effects of different concentrations of salts (0, 40, 80, 120, 160 and 200 mmol·L) on the seed germination and re-germination of six typical annuals (Gramineae: Setaria viridis, Chloris virgata and Eragrostis minor; Chenopodiaceae: Bassia dasyphylla, Salsola ruthenica and Corispermum mongolicum) in autumn of current year and next spring, with NaCl and NaHCO as neutral sodium salt and alkaline sodium salt. The results showed that NaCl and NaHCO significantly affected seed germination of the six species. The inhibition effect of NaHCO on seed germination was stronger than NaCl.