Impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on tree species composition and diversity of Fungshui forest community in Dongguan City of Guandong Province.

This paper studied the tree species composition and diversity of three Fungshui forests under different degrees of anthropogenic disturbance in Dalingshan Town of Dongguan City,Guangdong Province.Findings from the analysis with multi-response permutation procedures(MRPP)showed that there were significant differences in the species composition between low disturbance and medium disturbance(P=0.023,A=0.216)and between low disturbance and high disturbance(P=0.045,A=0.226),while no significant difference was observed between medium disturbance and high disturbance(P=0.124,A=0.148).The average DBH and tree height in the three forests decreased with increasing intensity of anthropogenic disturbance.Shannon-Wiener diversity index,Simpson diversity index,Margalef richness index,and Pielou evenness index all showed a consistent pattern of medium disturbancehigh disturbancelow disturbance,being in accordance with intermediate disturbance hypothesis.The Whittaker's β-diversity value under low,medium,and high disturbances was 0.501,0.647,and 0.889,respectively,which better reflected the habitat heterogeneity of the forests under different degrees of anthropogenic disturbance.