Plants diversity and biomass distribution of vegetation restoration in burned area of Great Xing’an Mountains.

In this study, we used the method of time-space mutual substitution in order to explore plant species diversity, biomass and their relationship in the process of vegetation restoration of burned areas. Compared with natural Betula platyphylla forest, Larix gmelinii plantation of different restoration years in severely burned area of Great Xing’an Mountains were selected as research object. The species diversity index and biomass of tree layer, shrub layer, herb layer and community were studied. The results showed that: 1) In the process of vegetation restoration, the Margalef richness, Shannon-Wiener and Pielou evenness indices of herb layer were higher than those of tree and shrub layers, but community species diversity fluctuated. The Margalef richness and Shannon-Wiener indices of the plantation restored after twenty-one years was the highest, and the Pielou evenness index of the plantation restored after thirteen years was the highest. 2) The biomass of community in the process of vegetation restoration was 10.80--123.96 t/ha, and it gradually increased with the increase of restoration years. The biomass of plantation restored after twenty-one and twenty-four years were higher than natural B. platyphlla forest. The biomass of herb layer accounted for the lowest proportion of community biomass. Restored after three years, litter storage capacity accounted for the highest proportion of community biomass. During other restoration years, tree layer biomass accounted for the highest proportion of community biomass. 3) The Margalef richness index of tree layer was very significantly positively correlated with biomass. The Shannon-Wiener and Pielou evenness indices of shrub layer were significantly negatively correlated with biomass. While the correlation coefficient of evenness index and biomass was the highest. Species diversity and biomass of herb layer were not significantly correlated. The Shannon-Wiener index of community was significantly negatively correlated with surface biomass. In conclusion, the diversity recovery effect of shrub and herb layers of artificial regeneration was better than natural regeneration. And the biomass recovery effect of artificial regeneration restored after twenty-one and twenty-four years was better than natural regeneration. In the process of vegetation restoration, the plant diversity and biomass had certain relevance.