[Dynamics of forest community structure and complexity in the process of secondary succession in bedrock area of west Shanxi Province].

In this paper, four plots representing the typical secondary succession stages of forest community were selected at the shady slope of bedrock area in Zhongyang County of West Shanxi, aimed to study the variation patterns of the structure and complexity of forest community in the process of secondary succession. The results showed that in the succession process of the community, there was an evident regularity in the variation of height and diameter class structure. The proportion of high and big individuals in the community increased gradually, while that of low and small ones increased first but decreased then. From the viewpoint of height class structure, the compositional complexity of tree species H (X), structural complexity of tree species H (Y/X), and complexity of whole community H (X,Y) all increased first, but decreased then with the succession. At the early, middle and arbor stages of succession, the H(X) value was 2.96, 3.85 and 3.75, while H (Y/X) value was 1.27, 1.66 and 1.37, respectively.