Relationship between Tree Richness and Temporary Stability of Plant Communities: A Case Study of a Forest in Northeast China

Temporary Stability Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Abies faxoniana-Dominated Communities in the Wanglang Nature Reserve

Specialized studies on the stability of Abies faxoniana (AF) communities are lacking. In order to fill this gap, a field survey of AF communities was conducted in the Wanglang Nature Reserve. Temporary stability is the possibility of the most dominant species to remain unchanged in a short period, reflecting the persistence of community stability to some extent. In this study, the temporary stability characteristics and influencing factors of the AF-dominated communities were analyzed. The results showed that the dominance of AF over the second dominant tree species became more pronounced as the temporary stability of the AF-dominated communities increased. Communities with the largest temporary stability value were dominated by AF alone. Furthermore, temporary stability had a significant linear positive relationship with the number of AF trees but not the AF size. There was no significant difference in the temporary stability between communities with and without large AF trees. It was concluded that with the increase in temporary stability, AF became more impossible to be replaced by other tree species in the short term, and the number of AF trees significantly affected the temporary stability of the AF-dominated communities. This study provides new insights into the stability characteristics of AF communities.