LONG Ziyu, WANG Zhicheng, ZHAO Rui, LIU Bing, WANG Lu, CHEN Gongxi
In order to study the species composition and diversity of herbaceous communities in the forest-creek ecotone of Hunan Dehang Geopark, ninety quadrats along three distinct transects (including Jiulong Creek, Hangxia Creek, and Yuquan Creek) were selected and investigated for a comprehensive investigation by both transect and quadrat survey methods. The results showed that 1) In the forest-creek ecotone of the Dehang Geopark, there were a total of 141 species belonging to 102 genera and 51 families of herbaceous plants, with the Asteraceae family being the most dominant, followed by Urticaceae and Lamiaceae; 2) The herba-ceous species in the forest-creek ecotone were characterized by undivided, papery, medium-sized, simple, and alternate leaves. The leaves along Jiulong Creek transect were mostly hairless on both sides, while those along Hangxia Creek and Yuquan Creek transects were with trichomes on both sides. They all possessed the functional traits of typical subtropical plant leaves; 3) The herbaceous species had reproductive traits such as dioecious flowers, axillary and terminal inflorescences, cyme, achenes and capsules, and wind-dispersed seeds, with the flowering period mainly from April to September and the fruiting period mainly from July to October; 4) All the Shannon-Wiener, Simpson, and Pielou indices showed the highest values along the Jiulong Creek transect, followed by the Hangxia Creek transect, and then the Yuquan Creek transect; 5) Both the dissimilarity coefficient and Cody index displayed a consistent pattern, with the lowest values between the Jiulong Creek and Hangxia Creek transects, and the highest values between the Yuquan Creek and Jiulong Creek transects. All of these could provide theoretical basis for the conservation and rational utilization of herbaceous resources in Hunan Dehang Geopark.