Significance of ecological restoration with a case study on Cemetery of Confucius

Background/Question/Methods

As a result of long term interference by human activities, the nature forest was destroyed and barren mountains are extensively distributed in northern China. How to fulfill forest ecosystem restoration is very difficult and becoming a research hotspot. Cemetery of Confucius, also known under its Chinese name “Kong Lin” (or Kong Forest), over 2000 years，covered by summer forest approximately 200 hectares,is the cemetery of Confucius and his descendants in Confucius' hometown Qufu, Shandong Province, China. It is not only the existing largest and oldest artificial forest in China but also a world heritage. We wonder how the Cemetery Forest has many characteristics of nature summer forest, such as aspect, structure, biodiversity, and what are the main factors of its succession. It would be interesting to explore whether the Forest can be used as a model to promote ecological restoration in other forest degraded regions in northern China. Therefore, we conducted a detailed investigation concentrated on the floristic, structure and succession using 10m×10m quadrats (total 22) method, from 2012 to 2013.

Results/Conclusions

Seven different forest vegetation types were be divided. They are Robinia pseudoacacia community, Platycladus orientalis community, Quercus acutissima community, Platycladus orientalis-Quercus acutissima mingled community, Platycladus orientalis-Pistacia chinensis mingled community, Gleditsia sinensis- Paulownia fortune mixed community and Quercus acutissima- Pistacia chinensis mixed community, five of them are nature or similar nature types. There are 4 to 5 layers of the nature forest types, such as Quercus acutissima community. A total of 83 species of vascular plants were identified, including 16 trees species. Biodiversity was described by Simpson index, Shannon-wiener index and Pielou evenness index. The tree and shrub diversity is obviously abundant than artificial forest in other regions. The high level of biodiversity indicates well-organized ecological restoration accelerates the forest restoration in regions where forest vegetation is degraded or damaged. The succession and development of the cemetery forest showed that local potential vegetation is summer forest, which also indicated ecological restoration would need quite a long time though both natural and artificial methods in the mountain areas of northern China. Thus, Cemetery of Confucius, served as a typical case of ecological restoration, should be given much more attention on research, management and protection.