Study on the effect of highway construction on photosynthetic rate of roadsides plant in Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region

A case study was conducted on Dabao (from Dali city to Baoshan city) and Sixiao (from Simao city to Xiaomengyang town) highways in Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region to investigate the effect of highway construction on photosynthetic rate of roadsides plants. The dominant species in the plant communities were selected to measure the variation of their photosynthetic rate with the distance to the highway, so as to analyze the effect of highway construction on photosynthesis and growth of roadside plants by using mathematic methods including contrast analysis, regress analysis and so on. Results indicate: (1) Highway construction reduced the plant photosynthetic rate of the arbor and crop, and improved the plant photosynthetic rate of the shrub and herbage; (2) highway construction directly affected the plant photosynthetic rate through changing the structure of plant community and living state of plant, and indirectly affected the plant photosynthetic rate through changing its environmental factors; (3) the location and topography of road are also important factors affecting plant photosynthetic rate on roadsides, the influencing incidence and intensity on plant photosynthetic rate under different topographies caused by the two selected highways were obviously different.