Floristic and coenological analyses of the montane evergreen broadleaved forest in Chebaling National Nature Reserve impacted by a huge ice storm.

The evergreen broadleaved forest ecosystem of Chebaling National Nature Reserve was severely damaged by the freezing rain and ice storm in the early 2008.Proportions of damaged stems were compared among 10 generic areal-types.The proportion of damaged stems belonged to temperate areal-type was higher than that to the tropical areal-type.2 test indicated that the proportions of damaged stems were significantly different(P0.01)among the 10 generic areal-types.The damage proportion of the Eastern Asia areal-type was the smallest,whereas the damage proportion of the tropical Asia and Africa,Eastern Asia and North America,and tropical Asia areal-types were greater than others.All the generic areal-types were dominated by serious damage class,and the proportion of damaged stems in moderate damage class and slight damage class were far less than serious damage class.Canonical correspondance analysis(CCA)indicated that density,basal area,slope and elevation could significantly affect the distribution of damaged trees(Monte Carlo test,P=0.010 0).The distribution of damaged trees of the dominant species,Castanopsis carlesii,was positively correlated with basal area,while the three subdominant species,Castanopsis fargesii,Neolitsea chuii and Eurya acuminate,were negatively affected by slope,and the other subdominant species,Schima superba,was positively affected by elevation.In sum,the areal-type most seriously damaged was that in which species were dominant and took up the dominant layer of the forest canopy.