Maintenance and natural regeneration of Castanopsis sclerophylla populations on islands of Qiandao Lake Region, China

Qiandao Lake was formed in 1959 when the Xin'anjiang Hydroelectric Plant was built. There are 1078 islands with areas larger than 2500 m2 and many smaller islands. The population structure of C. sclerophylla was investigated to reveal whether it can sustain on islands so as to provide suggestions for ecological restoration. C. sclerophylla can be found on islands with a water level higher than 105.4 m, whereas the highest water level of Qiandao Lake was 108.2 m. Number of individuals on islands, with a range from 4 to more than 4000, was significantly related to the areas or altitudes of the islands. Population structure indicated that, at genet level, C. sclerophylla on large and most medium-size islands could be self-sustainable, whereas on small and some medium-size islands C. sclerophylla could not be self-sustainable and would decline. However, at the ramet level, almost all the C. sclerophylla populations, no matter on large, medium or small islands, seem to be self-sustainable. Further analysis indicated that re-sprouting contributed to more than 81.6% of the genets and 94.8% of the shoots formed after the creation of the Lake. The results above indicated that although small size of populations exist on some islands, these populations might be sustained via vegetative reproduction, especially re-sprouting, for a long period under the present situation without human disturbance and dramatic environmental changes. Conditions of most islands meet the standards necessary for the survival and growth of C. sclerophylla. Therefore, lack of seed or seedling is the main limitation for the ecological restoration of evergreen broad-leaved forests on islands of Qiandao Lake. However, that no individual was reproduced from sexual reproduction on some medium and small islands indicates that environmental condition might be another limiting factor for restoration.