Population Structure and Spatial Distribution Pattern of Populus euphratica Riparian Forest Under Environmental Heterogeneity Along the Tarim River, Northwest China

作者：Asadilla Yusup, Ümüt Halik, Abdulla Abliz, Tayierjiang Aishan, Maierdang Keyimu, Jianxin Wei · 发表于：Frontiers in Plant Science · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3389/fpls.2022.844819 · 被引用次数：29 · 研究领域：Fire effects on ecosystems、Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Studies

Populus euphratica Oliv. (Euphrates poplar), as the dominant tree species of desert riparian forests along the Central Asian inland rivers, plays a critical role in protecting arid land ecosystems. In recent decades, climate change and excessive water resources utilization activities have led to the environmental degradation of desert riparian forests along the Tarim River in northwest China. Understanding the forest stand structure and spatial distribution pattern provide important guidance for monitoring forest dynamics in support of sustainable management. However, few studies have examined how riparian forests stand attributes differ in response to environmental heterogeneity. In this study, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) was applied to acquire a total of 1648 individual P. euphratica tree’s 3D structure attributes within 18 plots along the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Tarim River, which included tree height (TH), diameter at breast height (DBH), crown diameter (CD), crown projection area (CPA), stand density index (SDI), age structure ratios, and spatial pattern. The results showed that the average tree segmentation and structure determination accuracies of TLS were 93.2 and 94.6%. From the upper to the lower reaches, the average TH and CD decreased by 3.8 and 0.3 m, while the DBH increased by 4.2 cm. The SDI and CPA exhibited the following order: upper reaches (454 n ha –1 , 82.3%) > middle reaches (382 n ha –1 , 67.3%) > lower reaches (263 n ...