[Cleistogenes squarrosa population at different restorative succession stages in Inner Mongolia of China: a point...

In this paper, the spatial pattern of Cleistogenes squarrosa population in different restorative succession communities of the typical steppe dominated by Stipa grandis and Leymus chinensis in Inner Mongolia was measured by photography orientation, and analyzed by complete spatial randomness model, Poisson cluster process, and nested double-cluster process. In severely degraded community, C. squarrosa population fitted well nested double-cluster process for all scales, i. e., high density small clusters existed at the centers of large clusters; whereas in 5-, 8-, and 21-year-old restored communities, C. squarrosa population fitted well Poisson cluster process for all scales, i. e. , high density small clusters did not exist at the centers of the clusters. It was suggested that facilitation was the dominant interaction in severely degraded community, while competition dominated in restored communities. The differences in the spatial pattern of C. squarrosa population during the restorative succession could be induced by the shift from facilitation to competition along the gradient of grazing stress.