Characteristics and maturity level analysis of four communities in Ehuangzhang tropical monsoon forests of northern edge

To analyze the community characteristics of tropical monsoon forests with different succession stages, four different plant communities named A, B, C, and D were investigated in this study, respectively, in a typical monsoon forest of Ehuangzhang in Yangchun, Guangdong Province. The species composition, biodiversity and spatial structure were analyzed, their maturity levels’ differences were detemined, succession direction was predicted, and suggestions for optimization were put forward. The results were as follows: (1) The forest layers of the four communities were single. Small diameter at breast height (DBH) class trees and lower forest dominated these communities, owning 1-3 obvious dominant species. (2) The Shannon-Wiener index ranged from 2.72 to 3.74, Simpson index from 0.90 to 0.97, and Pielou evenness index from 0.74 to 0.89, suggesting that their diversity characteristics were significant differences. (3) Their dominance ranged from 0.49 to 0.51, uniform angle from 0.56 to 0.61, mingling from 0.54 t