Abstract:The phenomenon known as “valley bottom dryness” is common along rivers and their tributaries in southwest China, where potential annual evaporation is up to 5 times as high as the annual precipitation. Agricultural activities and fuel harvesting have led to severe degradation in those valleys. To encourage vegetation recovery, various native and exotic tree and shrub species were introduced to these areas. This study aims to investigate the impact of the introduced species on composition of the vegetation a...