Back to Contents

Pak. J. Bot., 46(6): 1963-1973, 2014.

FREE FULL TEXT PDF

POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS OF HALOXYLON AMMODENDRON (C.A.MEY) BUNGE IN GURBANTÜNGGÜT DESERT, CHINA

CHAOYAN LV^{1, 2}, XIMING ZHANG^{1, 3*} AND GUOJUN LIU^{1, 3}

Abstract: Haloxylon ammodendron（C.A. Mey）Bunge is a desert shrub with ecological and economic importance. Because of the severe drought and the over-exploitation for firewood and livestock, the species is threatened. The survivor and mortality were studied in six populations distributed along the margin of Gurbantünggüt desert. The size structures, life tables and survivor curves were constructed for the studied populations. Populations were dominated by juvenile individuals and the seedling recruitment was extremely limited. Size distributions were skewed towards larger size classes in all populations. The survivorship curves approached Deevey type III in which the highest mortality occurs in the early life stages. The results indicated that the populations of H. ammodendron are threatened and efforts are required to minimize uncontrolled exploitation. Due to the very limited seedling recruitment, conservation efforts are required to protect and develop the extant populations. For this purpose, in situ and ex situ conservation of H. ammodendron populations are strongly recommended.

Key words: Haloxylon ammodendron, Chenopodiaceae, Population demography, Life table and survival curves, Deevey type III.

¹Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China

²School of Agriculture and Technology, Zunyi Normal College, Zunyi 563002, China

³Cele National Station of Observation and Research for Desert-Grassland Ecosystem in Xinjiang, Cele 848300, Xinjiang, China

^*Corresponding author’s e-mail: zhxm@ms.xjb.ac.cn; Tel: +86-991-7885440; Fax: +86-991-7885320