Abstract:This study aims to characterize the damage or sensitivity of different plant species growing under long-term air pollution around ceramic industrial areas, on the basis of community survey, to provide implications for restoration of heavily polluted and degraded areas in similar condition. Field survey was carried out by ten quadrats 10m×10m in area for tree layer, and eight subquadrats 5m×5m for shrub and herb layers in a hilly land semi-natural secondary forest at a rural site in Nanhai city of Guangdong Province. The forest was dominated by exotic Eucalyptus exserta and Eucalyptus urophylla, followed by native tree species, Schefflera octophylla and Bambusa gibba, with the importance value (Ⅳ) of 26.75, 17.08, 16.27 and 11.50, respectively, while all other companion species accounted for less than 30%, Based on foliage loss and the extent of injured leaf tissues, plants were categorized into: (1) dead without any leaves attached, (2) severe damage with the injured degree ranging from 60% to 100%, (3) moderate damage, 25%-60%, (4) light damage, 10%-25%, and healthy with the injured degree less than 10%. Among all tree species, Eucalyptus exserta and Pinus massoniana were the most severely damaged species, of which all individuals were dead or with only a few dead branches without any leaves attached, and then followed by Bambusa gibba and Dalbergia balansae. Although the Ⅳ was much lower for the rest companion species, but most of them showed high capacities to cope with the pollution stress. These species include Schefflera octophylla, Viburnum odoratissimum, Desmos chinensis, Syplocos lancifolia, Broussonetia papyrfera, Mallotus apelta, Aporosa dioica, Carallia brachiata, Trema tomentosa, Ficus hirta and Litsea glutinosa. Compared with species in tree layer, damages of woody seedlings, herbs or lianas growing under the canopies were largely reduced. Results from this study demonstrate that attention and concern should be made on those introduced Eucalyptus species in heavily polluted area, which had ever been considered as one of the important species for forest restoration in hilly degraded lands and planted in a wide range of areas during 1970-80s, due to its fast growing aspect. The results also demonstrate the potentials and perspectives by developing native species as target plants for restoration of degraded area, which makes a stimulus for scientists to initiate studies as a base for advancing our ability to describe the functional aspects of native species and process-based interactions with pollution stress.
