The Recovery Processes of Giant Panda Habitat in Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan China

Protection and restoration of habitat are the most important approaches for giant panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca ) conservation. The community structure attributes of rehabilitated habitats for the giant panda in Wolong reserve were comparatively studied by sampling investigation. In this study, we investigated 21 samples that belong to 5 kinds of habitats. They are primitive habitat, the natural recovered habitat logged in 1920~1930's, the natural recovered habitat that logged in 1940~1950's, the natural recover habitat logged after 1970, and the habitat that recovered by artificially planted in 1960~1970's. The results showed that there are significant differences in plant community composition, the edible bamboo resources, species biodiversity, tree numbers (higher than 5 m), average breast height diameters of trees, and maximum breast height diameter of trees in the different habitats. There are differences in some degrees in the bamboo biomass and bamboo regeneration ability. The community similarity between artificial planted habitat and the primitive habitat is less than the similarity between other natural recovery habitats and the primitive habitat. The study suggested the recovery of the giant panda's habitat include the recovery of the panda edible bamboo community, and the recovery of habitat community structure. The time for recovery of bamboo was relatively short, about 20~30 years. While, the recovery of community structure was relatively time consuming, it was needed about 50 years that the habitats can serve as the suitable habitat for the giant panda, about 70~80 years for the disturbed habitats to recover close to primitive habitat. According to this study, the artificially planted habitat was neither an efficient approach for the bamboo resources recovery, nor for the vegetation community recovery.