Understory flora and community physiognomy of planted forests in the degraded purple soil ecosystem, South China

The flora and community physiognomy of degraded plantation ecosystems on purple soil were investigated in Ninghua County of Fujian Province, China to understand the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem processe. Four different restoration communities (labeled as ecological restoration treatment I, II, III and IV) were selected by space-time replacement method according to the erosion intensity in degraded purple soil ecosystem. The results showed that there were totally 86 plant species belonging to 78 genera and 43 families in the degraded purple soil ecosystem. Of the 15 types of distribution area in spermatophyte genus, 12 types were found in the purple soil ecosystem. Along restoration gradient from low to high, plant growth type and life form spectra became abundant more and more, and the spermatophyte genera for each distribution area type and genera numbers for different foliage characters increased as well. It is concluded that the plant flora and physiognomy in ecological restoration process become more complex and diverse, indicating that the forest ecosystem on purple soil tends to be more stable.