Environmental Characteristics and Vegetation of Hanabusaya asiatica Habitats

Abstract

This study intended to investigate the environmental factors including soil and vegetation in order to better understand the environmental and ecological characteristics of ten different habitats of Hanabusaya asiatica. These habitats, according to investigations, are mostly located on the slopes of mountains facing north at an altitude of 580 m to 1,396 m above sea level with angles of inclination ranging from 5 degrees to 80 degrees. A total of 146 vascular plant taxa are identified in 32 quadrates of the ten habitats. The importance value of H. asiatica is 8.87%, and 5 highly ranked species such as Carex siderosticta (8.67%), Ainsliaea acerifolia var. subapoda (7.10%), Calamagrostis arundinacea (6.79%), Athyrium yokoscense (5.33%), Astilbe rubra (3.11%) are considered to be an affinity with H. asiatica in their habitats. Dominant species of woody plants in ten habitats are represented as Quercus mongolica in tree layer (T1), Acer pseudo-sieboldianum in subtree layer (T2), Rhododendron schlippenbachii and Tripterygium regelii in shrub layer (S). The degree of their average species diversity is 1.30, and that of dominance and evenness are 0.08 and 0.88, respectively.. The type of soil is sandy loam, loam and loamy sand, and the average field capacity of soil is 23.95%. Their average organic matter is 12.28%, soil pH 5.79, and available phosphorus is 25.48%. Correlation coefficients analysis based on environmental factors, vegetation and soil analysis shows that the coverage of tree layers is correlated with richness, diversity, dominance, evenness and coverage of H. asiatica.