Study on reforestation with seabuckthorn in the Pisha Sandstone area

In northwest China, an area of more than 11 000 km2 is covered by Pisha Sandstone, a kind of loosely bonded sandstone formed during the Tertiary period. Pisha Sandstone is hard when it is dry but becomes loose when it is wet. Due the nature of this sandstone, this area of northwest China is plagued with a high erosion rate (over 20 000 t/km2 yr) as well as poor vegetation. In order to reforest gullies and to control erosion in the area, seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides Linn) was successfully used to reduce the erosion rate and help encourage vegetation growth in this area. Field investigations have been carried out in the Xizhao gully to study the effects of the species on sediment trapping and ecological improvement. Through these investigations, it was discovered that seabuckthorn encouraged the growth of Clinelymus dahurcus Turcz, and consequently, the two species form a dense double-layer of vegetation with well-developed middle and understory plant communities. The forest was planted in the late 1990s (first introduced in 1995), with a measured rate of sediment trapping efficiency of more than 90%. Rainstorm water was also stored in the gully within the trapped sediment. The water content in the reforested gully was approximately twice as high as the non-vegetated gully. Soil organic matter content was higher in the gully planted with seabuckthorn than compared with a non-vegetated gully. The understory community was evaluated by the taxa richness, the thickness-coverage and the Simpson diversity of the sub-layer vegetation. The understory community patterns found in the seabuckthorn vegetation was much better compared with those found in areas forested with poplar or willow vegetation.