在没有强烈外力干扰的条件下，随着时间的推移，同一地段上的森林会依次出现不同的群落类型的演变，此即为森林演替。森林演替研究是森林生态学理论研究的核心问题之一，在实践上掌握森林的演替规律可以更好地管理森林并发挥森林最大的经济效益和生态效益。生态记忆是指生态系统受到干扰破坏后，系统残余资源所包含信息的综合，它既呈现了系统过去所受的干扰，也反映出系统的目前状态及其未来走向。目前尚无将两者联系起来的相关研究。
中科院华南植物园植被与景观生态学研究组博士生孙中宇在导师任海研究员的指导下，以广东鼎湖山自然保护区内的南亚热带森林的草坡-针叶林-针阔叶混交林-季风常绿阔叶林的自然演替系列群落为对象，选取地表植被、土壤微生物、土壤动物、土壤种子库、鸟类、土壤孢粉、土壤表观年龄、土壤矿质元素分布、群落光环境等九类指标，提出一套生态记忆的整合量化方法并建立生态记忆评价体系。
根据该体系评估发现：森林的生态记忆随演替过程呈非线性增长，不同演替阶段所积累的主要生态记忆组分不同；除针阔叶混交林外，所有演替阶段均处于正向演替状态。在此研究过程中，他们还提出了森林演替过程中长/短时记忆和前瞻/回顾记忆的概念，完善了生态记忆的概念模型。
该研究结果近期在线发表在国际环境科学期刊Ecological Indicators上。
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
Ecological Indicators doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.05.010
Zhongyu Sun, Hai Ren, Valentin Schaefer, Hongfang Lu, Jun Wang, Linjun Li, Nan Liu
Quantifying ecological memory during forest succession: A case study from lower subtropical forest ecosystems in South China
The concept of ecological memory provides a new perspective for research on forest succession by including historical factors and the initial state of ecological processes. However, there are still significant gaps between the concept and its application. We selected nine proxy indicators (plant species, soil seed banks, soil microbes, soil animals, birds, soil age, soil pollen, soil mineral distribution, and light environment) and developed a method to quantify ecological memory and succession in a subtropical forest succession in South China. Taking the climax-monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest as the reference ecosystem, we found that ecological memory increased nonlinearly and accumulated following a specific assembly rule during succession. Memory concerning major soil microbes and soil animals, which improve the soil substrate, mainly accumulated from the initial to the early successional stage. Memory concerning the number of bird species and the availability of light, which ensure a source of regenerative seeds and the survival of understory seedlings, mainly accumulated from the early to middle successional stages. Memory concerning vegetation and soil seed banks mainly accumulated late in succession, guaranteeing that the ecosystem would reach the regional climax stage. Prospective memory was greater than retrospective memory in every successional stage except the late stage, which indicated that all stages but the late stage were undergoing progressive succession. Our study demonstrates that the concept of ecological memory and the proposed evaluation framework are useful for guiding research on succession and restoration, and especially for assessing how “far” a restored ecosystem is from a reference ecosystem or how far a restored ecosystem has deviated from its natural succession trajectory.
