Bamboo Expansion and Soil Physicochemical Characteristics

Soils are the foundation of forest ecosystems, changes in vegetation types or species composition will impact the physicochemical characteristics of soil. Moso bamboo is characterized by rapid growth and reproduction and strong adaptability, is an important bamboo species for both bamboo shoots and wood in south China and plays an important role in increasing the income of forestry farmers and the economic development of the bamboo industry. Moso bamboo propagates by expanding its whip roots underground, invading neighboring communities in heterogeneous habitats that intersect with other communities, and forming bamboo shoots to realize population cloning and expansion, thereby occupying new habitats, expanding the bamboo forest area, and gradually transforming the original vegetation into the bamboo forest. Studies have shown that the expansion rate of moso bamboo is significantly correlated with the annual mean temperature. With global warming, the expansion of moso bamboo to high altitudes and high latitudes could become an inevitable trend. The expansion of moso bamboo would change the original forest stand composition, biodiversity, biological cycle processes, and alter the physicochemical characteristics of forest soil, which could have an important impact on the soil quality and related ecological functions of the forest.