Germination characteristics and spatial distribution patterns of woody plants in a deciduous broad-leaved forest in Baiyunshan, Henan Province, China

We studied the woody plant community in a 5 hm² area of deciduous broad-leaved forest in Baiyunshan Nature Reserve, Henan Province, China, and explored the characteristics and spatial patterns of the sprouting individuals and sprouting species using point distribution. We identified 91 species and 17 369 trees in the study plot, including 62 sprouting species and 2082 sprouting trees. Sprouting species accounted for 68.13% of the total species and sprouting individuals accounted for 11.99% of the total individuals. The diameter at breast height (DBH) distribution of all sprouting woody plants in the plot conformed to an inverted "J" shape, indicating that the sprouting phenomenon mostly occurred in the early stage of woody plant growth and development. The DBH structure of the top 12 sprouting species with importance values showed four types, i.e., inverted "J" type, bimodal type, normal type, and fluctuating type, indicating that different species exhibited different sprouting abilities at different life cycle stages. Point distribution pattern analysis of sprouting individuals in the top 12 sprouting species with importance values showed that the distribution was aggregated at the small scale but was random or uniform at the large scale. Thus, sprouting regeneration appears to be common in temperate deciduous broad-leaved forests and shows different aggregation distribution patterns due to the different adaptation ranges of each species to the environment.