%0 Journal Article %A Ying-Gang WANG %A Qiu-Hua ZHANG %A Feng ZHANG %A Yu-En ZHU %T IMPACTS OF URBAN RIVER RECONSTRUCTION ON NATIVE VASCULAR PLANTS IN A CHINESE RIVER ECOSYSTEM %D 2007 %R 10.17521/cjpe.2007.0055 %J Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology %P 451-456 %V 31 %N 3 %X

Aims Some urban river segments are reconstructed, resulting in benefits as well as ecological problems including reduced species diversity and altered species composition. Therefore, better understanding of the ecological impacts of urban river reconstruction projects is important for effectively protecting river ecosystems in future projects.
Methods We studied a 4.2 km river reconstruction project of Fenhe River in Taiyuan, using 30 random sample plots before (1997) and after (2003) reconstruction. We examined impacts of the project on species diversity, frequency and community similarity of native vascular plants using the Shannon-Weiner index, Sørensen index and one-factor analysis of variance.
Important findings Species richness and Shannon-Weiner index values decreased after reconstruction. In addition, the number of low frequency species increased, the number of high frequency species decreased and the similarity of species composition before and after reconstruction was low. Therefore, the impacts of this urban river reconstruction project on the species diversity, frequency and community similarity of native vascular plants were substantial.

%U https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2007.0055