Abstract: Spartina alterniflora widely invades to the coastal wetlands in China. The ecological restoration mode of biological substitution that used mangrove to control the invasion of S. alterniflora has aroused widely concern. In this study, we evaluated the mangrove restoration of Kandelia obovata to control S.alterniflora in Aojiang Estuary of Zhejiang Province, China, by monitoring plant community structure and macrofauna diversity as well as the quality of water and sediment. The results showed that young mangrove community was simple in structure and well grown. The range of macrofauna community diversity index was 0-2.055 in mangrove site, and 1.053-2.805 in S. alterniflora site, which indicated that the environment of S. alterniflora was still well for macrofauna growth. This might be due to the young ages of K.obovata trees in this early stage of restoration. With weak purifying ability, the young forests had low ability to harbor macrofauna. This substitution could act as a typical case controlling S. alterniflora in its high latitude distribution region, which is expected to have better ecological functions after long-term management.

Key words: community structure., allochthonous material, landwater interaction, ecosystem function, biodiversity