Abstract: Urban remnant forests have a high value in biodiversity conservation. The knowledge about the relationship between urbanization and phylogenetic characteristics of woody plants can help reveal the maintenance mechanism of biodiversity in urban remnant forests. We surveyed species composition of woody plants in 72 plots of nine remnant forest patches in a southwest mountain city-Guiyang, China. We calculated the phylogenetic parameters of plant communities. We used Tukey test, paired t-test, and analysis of similarities to explore the combined impacts of urbanization and edge effects on the phylogenetic characteristics of woody plants in urban remnant forests. We found high phylogenetic diversity of shrub communities and an aggregation trend of phylogenetic structure. The edge effects at sapling/seedling layer were significant under high levels of urbanization. Urbanization level had more influence on the phylogenetic characteristics of plant communities in edge habitats than in inner habitats. The phylogenetic structure of plant communities in the edge habitats under high urbanization levels was significantly different from that in the inner habitats under low urbanization levels. Both the urbanization level and edge effects influenced the phylogenetic characteristics of plant communities in remnant forests. We recommend that urban expansion surrounding remnant patches should be strictly controlled to alleviate edge effects on the phylogeny of remnant vegetation.

Key words: urban remnant forest, urbanization level, edge effect, woody plant, phylogenetic characteristics, Guiyang