Research Article Ecological Effects of Roads on the Plant Diversity of Coastal Wetland in the Yellow River Delta Yunzhao Li, 1,2 Junbao Yu, 1 Kai Ning, 1,2 Siyao Du, 3 Guangxuan Han, 1 Fanzhu Qu, 1,2 Guangmei Wang, 1 Yuqin Fu, 1,2 and Chao Zhan 1,2 1 Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes, YICCAS, Yantai, Shandong 264003, China 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 3 College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China Correspondence should be addressed to Junbao Yu; junbao.yu@gmail.com Received 22 February 2014; Revised 14 March 2014; Accepted 14 March 2014; Published 31 March 2014 Academic Editor: Hong-bo Shao Copyright © 2014 Yunzhao Li et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te 26 sample sites in 7 study plots adjacent to asphalt road and earth road in coastal wetland in the Yellow River Delta were selected to quantify plant diversity using quadrat sampling method in plant bloom phase of July and August 2012. Te indice of   and Jaccard’s coefcient were applied to evaluate the species diversity. Te results showed that the plant diversities and alien plants were high in the range of 0–20 m to the road verge. Tere were more exotics and halophytes in plots of asphalt roadside than that of earth roadside. However, proportion of halophytes in habitats of asphalt roadsides was lower than that of earth roadside. By comparing -diversity, there were more common species in the asphalt roadsides than that in the earth roadsides. Te similarity of plant communities in studied plots of asphalt roadsides and earth roadsides increased with increasing the distance to road verge. Te efect range of roads for plant diversity in study region was about 20 m to road verge. Our results indicate that the construction and maintenance of roads in wetland could increase the plant species diversities of communities and risk of alien species invasion. 1. Introduction Roads are common artifcial infrastructures, but high den- sity roads rarely appear in wetlands. However, the study interests of road ecology in the wetland are growing [1– 3]. Construction and maintenance of roads have modifed the natural wetland landscape and might result in many ecological efects (or ecological risks) [4–6]. Generally, there are six primary ecological efects of roads, that is, (1) habitat loss [7], (2) disturbance [8, 9], (3) corridor [10, 11], (4) mortality [12], (5) barrier [13], and (6) behavior modifcation [14–16]. Te ecological efects of roads can be divided into efects in construction period and short term efects and long term efects in operation period [17, 18]. Terefore, it is difcult to evaluate accurately ecological efects of road on ecosystem because of comprehensive results [19–22]. Te roads construction and existence have shown deleterious efects on a variety of ecosystems [1, 23, 24] and ofen noted by ecologists for their far-reaching negative consequences to ecosystem structures and fows [10, 22, 24–27]. Meanwhile, some road efects are benefcial to ecosystems though they are hard to confrm [22]. For example, ecologists have found that the positive feedbacks, for example, regional climate change, and the amount of forest fragmentation and deforestation directly related to the construction of roads [28, 29]. Actually, it is true that roads and roads edges provide resources for some species, particularly small mammals and insects [7, 17, 24]. In some cases, roads were found to have been acted as essential corridors for survival, movement, and propagation [7, 24, 30]. Te wetland vegetation, one of the three most important elements of wetlands [31, 32], is greatly afected by the disturbance of road. Te previous studies in the YRD reported that the high species richness and biodiversity were observed adjacent to the road verge [33]. Besides the distance from the road verge, the width, noise, vehicle trafc levels of road, and highway density also could infuence the plant Hindawi Publishing Corporation e Scientific World Journal Volume 2014, Article ID 952051, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/952051