[Evaluation on degradation of Karst forest community and human disturbance]

Fire, reclamation, herd, and cut led to degradation of Karst forest in Guizhou Province. Five indexes as height, dominance, percentage of asexual individual, biomass, and percentage of shade-tolerant for evaluating community degradation were selected. Degraded communities were divided into six degraded grades (A-F). Community structure and function fluctuated normally in climax (A) under nature force or light human disturbance. While effect of disturbance was preponderated over the range of community fluctuation, climax community degraded evidently, and degraded degree of communities increased gradually. Degraded grades of communities were consistent to succession stages of degraded community. In degraded process, the key factor was decrease of biomass and shade-tolerant species. Degraded communities due to fire, herd, and reclamation were distributed in grades C-F, and degraded community due to cut was in grades B-C. Amount of asexual individual was influenced by disturbance type, and the amount in degraded communities due to fire and cut was more than that due to reclamation and herd. Degraded degree of different disturbed community was in order of cut community < cleared community < herded community < fired community.