Changes in species richness and community productivity during succession on the Loess Plateau (China)

We investigated changes in species richness, community biomass, and productivity during secondary forest succession in Ziwuling area of the Loess Plateau of China. Species richness(number of taxa) increased as the succession proceeds, and peaked at the climax forest community, but the richness growth gradually slowed down as the succession advanced. Community biomass rapidly increased from the herbaceous stage to the shrub stage and declined slightly in the climax forest stage. The maximum community biomass occurred in the pioneer forest stage. Community productivity followed an unimodal curve in the succession, and the maximum productivity occurred in the shrub community at the middle succession stage, and the communities maintained a low and stable productivity at the later succession stages. The herb and shrub species together determined community diversity during succession, while the tree species contributed less to diversity in the communities. The herb and shrub layers had a relatively low biomass, but contributed almost half of the productivity of the forest communities. The relationships between species richness, community biomass and productivity were unimodal during succession, but only the relationship between species richness and community biomass was significant.