TITLE:
Case Study of Baiyun and Caohai Lakes Implies How to Implement Wetland Restoration/Creation
AUTHORS:
Lin Xiao, Qun Zhang, Guifeng Wei, Sixi Zhu, Fanyang Yu, Boping Han
KEYWORDS:
Wetland Restoration, Community Composition, Emergent Plants, Submergent Plants, Dispersal and Colonization Potential
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.5 No.10,
October
24,
2018
ABSTRACT: This work discusses how to implement wetland restoration/creation from the viewpoint that wetland aquatic plants are divided into four life forms: emergent, submergent, floating and floating leaf plants. Caohai Lake and Baiyun Lake were selected to discuss the difference of the species richness changes during the creation/restoration process. Baiyun Lake and eight surrounding wetlands have been selected to discuss how the species rich-ness, the dispersal and the colonization potential among four plant life forms affect the species richness changes and community restoration in the target wetland. The community composition changes in the introduced single dominant submergent and emergent plant community in Baiyun Lake have also been tracked to discuss how invasive plants’ dispersal affects wetland restoration/creation. The result indicated that in the process of creation/restoration of Caohai Lake and Baiyun Lake, the emergent plants have been increasing, while the submergent, the floating and the floating leaf plants began to increase and then maintained a dynamic balance. The similarity of plant community composition between the target wetland Baiyun Lake and the surrounding wetlands increased gradually, which was mainly affected by distance and river-lake connectivity. In the natural wetlands, the most common plants are emergent plants, which account for approximately 80 percent of wetland plants; this implies a greater abundance of germplasm resources, dispersal and colonization potential of emergent plants than the other three plant life forms. In Baiyun Lake, invasive plants mainly affect the introduced emergent plants community. The study confirms that before implementing wetland restoration/creation, pre-restoration surveys are required to the target wetland and its surrounding wetland. The study also finds that in Guangdong province, China, the restoration of wetland vegetation should give more priority to the submergent plants. Generally emergent plants community’s invasive preventing and submergent plants germplasm resources introducing will be the focus of the human intervention in wetland restoration/creation.