Evaluation Study on the Community Structure of Ecological Restoration for Highway Slope Greening and Afforestation

Construction of highway often leads to the formation of exposed mountain slopes, which, with their exposed rock and lack of soil, become particularly difficult sites for afforestation. In this study, a series of technological processes, including small platform excavation, planting bag cofferdam pits, thick substrate spraying, and afforestation, were employed to carry out forest ecological restoration of Highroad slope afforestation. After 11 years of growth and natural succession, the results showed that the afforested slope became more integrated with the surrounding natural terrain and forest landscape, with a plant community structure that was similar. The community similarity coefficient was 0.5307, with a similarity coefficient of 0.7071 in the tree layer, 0.3354 in the shrub layer, and 0.5461 in the herbaceous layer. The vegetation of the afforested slope has approached a natural state, and the similarity of the community is expected to improve further with the passage of time and the natural succession process. The research indicates that the key to the construction of forested slopes is the creation of planting bag cofferdam pits and the effective use of the surrounding forest topsoil seed bank within the thick substrate.