Preliminary Study on Plant Community Stability in Fragmented Habitats of Thousand Island Lake

In the context of global forest fragmentation, the exploration of plant community composition and stability within fragmented habitats is of fundamental importance for elucidating the mechanism of community maintenance and restoring functions of ecosystem. On the basis of long-term monitoring data of plant community on nine islands of different area (classified as small, medium, and large islands) and three sample plots neighboring mainland (CK), comparative analysis of the species diversity indices were conducted, Godron stability (resistance to compositional shifts) and temporal stability (biomass variability over time) were calculated, the relationship between island area, isolation and community stability was analyzed by using simple linear model. The results showed that habitats with lower fragmentation sustained higher species diversity, the outcome of Godron stability (reflecting the resistance of community composition to disturbance) and temporal stability (reflecting the inter-annual fluctuation of biomass) consistently supported the finding that plant communities with low fragmentation and high species diversity exhibited greater stability. Moreover, a positive correlation was observed between island area and the stability of plant communities.These results demonstrate that the reduction of patch area in fragmented habitats not only produces the negative effect on species diversity, but also diminishes the community stability, illuminating habitat loss is adverse to the long-term maintenance of plant community.