Fig. 2

(a) The trends of plant changes in different vegetation communities. (b) The changing trends of different plants in the SSB. Gramineae, Leguminosae and S. collina were selected for a comparison of trends in the different years post-restoration. Uppercase letters denote differences between groups and lowercase letters indicate differences within a group, P < 0.05. 2a represents restoration of a 2-year-old dump, 4a represents restoration of a 4-year-old dump, 7a represents restoration of a 7-year-old dump, 17a represents restoration of a 17-year-old dump, and CK represents natural grassland.