Characteristics of Woody Plant Regeneration of the Semi-humid Evergreen Broad-leaved Forest at Diaoling Mountain of Central Yunnan

The predominant communities including Castanopsis delavayi community, Castanopsis orthacantha community, and Lithocarpus confinis community of semi-humid evergreen broad-leaved forest at Diaoling Mountain of Central Yunnan was investigated. The species compositions, abundance, density, richness, regeneration mode, the relationship with environmental factors were recorded, to explore the difference of seedlings composition and density in different communities. Also we explored the effect of environmental conditions on seedlings. The results showed that in the 40 plots, 47 woody plant seedlings were recorded, belonging to 32 genera, 18 families. The woody plant species of seedlings was dominated by Fagaceae, Vacciniaceae, and Theaceae. The arbor seedlings density of C.orthacantha community was significantly higher than that of other communities, followed by L.confinis community, the smallest seedlings density was C.delavayi community. Shrub seedlings density and vine seedlings density both have no significant difference among the 3 communities. Surprisingly, there was no significant correlation between the environmental factors and seedlings density. In our study, we found the most regeneration style of woody plant seedlings was the form of seeding in different community types, and the proportion of sprout seedlings was smaller.