Effects of Stand Density Regulation on Stand Structure and Understory Biodiversity of Larix kaempferi Plantations
ZHANG Jingbo
YI Jie
AI Xunru
YAO Lan
ZHU Jiang
WEI Jing
Abstract：To explore the effects of density regulation on the structure and understory biodiversity of Larix kaempferi plantations,Larix kaempferi plantations in the state-owned Gaoyanzi Forest Farm of Jianshi County,Hubei Province were taken as the research objects.The effects of four different density regulation treatments(light,moderate,heavy thinning and control)on the diversity of understory shrubs and herbs were analyzed.Methods such as fixed sample plot survey,community structure analysis,biodiversity index analysis,analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis were adopted to clarify the influence degree.The results showed that a total of 20 fixed sample plots were set up,and 32 species of understory shrub and herb layer plants were investigated,belonging to 26 genera of 21 families.Under different stand density regulation treatments,Symplocos paniculata was the dominant species in the shrub layer,while Indocalamus tessellatus was dominant in the herb layer.The Shannon-Wiener index,species richness and Pielou evenness index of shrub and herb layer plants showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with the increase of density regulation intensity,and reached the maximum under moderate thinning.The stand structure diversity had a significant negative impact on the understory shrub layer diversity,but no significant impact on the herb layer diversity.This study indicated that moderate thinning could effectively increase the number of species,improve species diversity,and be beneficial to the stable and sustainable development of Larix kaempferi plantations.
Keywords：density regulationLarix kaempferiforest stand structureunderstory vegetationspecies compositionbiodiversity
Publication Date：2026-03-20
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-26(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：8( 1-7,14 )