Natural recovery and restoration in giant panda habitat after the Wenchuan earthquake

CORC > 生态环境研究中心 > 中国科学院生态环境研究中心 > 城市与区域生态国家重点实验室

	Natural recovery and restoration in giant panda habitat after the Wenchuan earthquake
	Zhang, Jindong ; Hull, Vanessa ; Huang, Jinyan ; Yang, Wu ; Zhou, Shiqiang ; Xu, Weihua ; Huang, Yan ; Ouyang, Zhiyun ; Zhang, Hemin ; Liu, Jianguo
刊名	FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
	2014
卷号	319 期号:1 页码:1-9
关键词	Earthquake Restoration Natural recovery Giant panda
ISSN号	0378-1127
中文摘要	Natural disasters affect forest ecosystems in profound and complex ways. Artificial restoration projects have been conducted worldwide to repair disaster damage to forests, but the efficacy of such projects in light of naturally occurring recovery processes is rarely evaluated. To fill such an important knowledge gap, we investigated forest recovery and restoration in the world-renowned Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China after the catastrophic Wenchuan earthquake (magnitude 8.0) in 2008, which caused considerable damage to the forest and habitat of the endangered giant panda. This was the first multi-year field study to document natural recovery of forests in response to this disaster. Forest sampling conducted in panda habitat over a four-year period after the earthquake revealed that natural recovery was rapid, with vegetation covering roughly 70% of once denuded sites by the fourth sampling year. Vegetation recovery was further improved in sampled artificial restoration sites, which recovered from an average of 30% vegetation cover to 70% in only one year. Factors including soil cover and slope were correlated with successful vegetation recovery. New information learned from the multi-year field data provided a finer scale context for understanding the effects of disasters, a novel contribution considering that the majority of previous work has been conducted at the broader scale using remote sensing. Spatial analysis revealed that restoration sites were mainly distributed in areas of suitable slopes and elevations, but a measurable proportion (30-40%) were located too far from the existing panda distribution area and too close to human settlements. The restoration project has thus far had limited direct effect on giant panda conservation, but has indirect effects on improving forest cover in areas previously affected by human disturbances. This study provides a useful reference for understanding conditions affecting forest recovery, which can inform decision-making surrounding the implementation of forest restoration projects and conservation of endangered species, not only in China but also around the world. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
WOS记录号	WOS:000335096900001
公开日期	2015-03-23
内容类型	期刊论文
源URL	[http://ir.rcees.ac.cn/handle/311016/9192]
专题	生态环境研究中心_城市与区域生态国家重点实验室
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Zhang, Jindong,Hull, Vanessa,Huang, Jinyan,et al. Natural recovery and restoration in giant panda habitat after the Wenchuan earthquake[J]. FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT,2014,319(1):1-9.
APA	Zhang, Jindong.,Hull, Vanessa.,Huang, Jinyan.,Yang, Wu.,Zhou, Shiqiang.,...&Liu, Jianguo.(2014).Natural recovery and restoration in giant panda habitat after the Wenchuan earthquake.FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT,319(1),1-9.
MLA	Zhang, Jindong,et al."Natural recovery and restoration in giant panda habitat after the Wenchuan earthquake".FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT 319.1(2014):1-9.