Relationships between vegetation and soil and topography in a dry warm river valley, SW China

Understanding of the relationships between vegetation and soil and topography would be very important for ecosystem restoration and management efforts in the dry valleys of Himalayan region but how to clarify the complicated relationships and figure out key factors for practical purpose is a challenge. The main objective of this research was to propose a four-staged procedure by combining several multivariate statistical techniques to detect the relationships between vegetation and soil and topography, and thereby identify the key factors for the degraded ecosystem restoration and management. Forty-three plots (5 m × 5 m) were selected for the field survey of the vegetation, soil and topography variables in the dry warm river valley of the upper Minjiang River, Sichuan Province, China. Cluster analysis (CA) demonstrated that high plant diversity, cover and height were associated with good soil quality and favorable topographic positions with lower solar incident radiation, runoff and soil erosion potential. Correlation analysis (simple correlation analysis and canonical correlation analysis) and multiple linear stepwise regression analysis affirmed that plant diversity was mainly correlated with soil water content, and soil water content was mainly determined by soil texture (clay content). Soil clay content alone could explain about 70% of the total variance. Identifying the favorable topographic position and the distribution pattern of soil texture and its controlling mechanisms is thus very important for restoration practices. In the process of ecosystem restoration, we should promote the co-evolution of vegetation and soil, and follow the natural succession sequence. Some relevant conservation polices are also needed to reduce human disturbance on ecosystem.