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Distribution pattern of plant species diversity in the mountainous Region of Ili River Valley, Xinjiang

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Abstract

In this paper, detrended canonical correspondence analysis was performed to analyze the relationships between diversity indices and environmental gradients, generalized additive model was employed to modal the response curves of diversity indices to the elevation, based on data from field investigation in the mountainous region of the Ili River Valley and a survey of 94 sample plots. Two hundred fifty-nine plant species were recorded in the 94 sample plots investigated, up to 235 species all appeared in the herb layer, and the species of woody plants were very limited. The communities with a complicated vertical structure presented higher values of indices. The distribution pattern of plant species diversity on the northern slope was affected by such factors as elevation, slope aspect, slope gradient, total nitrogen, total potassium, soil water content, organic matter, and that on the southern slope was mainly affected by such factors as slope gradient, elevation, available phosphorus, and soil water content. On the northern slope, Patrick index and Shannon–Wiener index of the plant communities presented a bimodality pattern along altitude; Simpson index and Pielou index showed a partially unimodal pattern. On the southern slope all the distribution pattern of species diversity indices showed two peaks, though Patrick index’s bimodality pattern was not an obvious one. These altitudinal patterns were formed by the synthetic action of a variety of environmental factors with elevation playing an important role.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology and Desert Environment, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Yuanjie Xu, Yaning Chen, Weihong Li, Aihong Fu, Xiaodong Ma, Dongwei Gui & Yapeng Chen

  2. Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10039, China

    Yuanjie Xu

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  1. Yuanjie Xu
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  2. Yaning Chen
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  3. Weihong Li
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  4. Aihong Fu
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  5. Xiaodong Ma
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  6. Dongwei Gui
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  7. Yapeng Chen
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Correspondence to Yaning Chen.

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Xu, Y., Chen, Y., Li, W. et al. Distribution pattern of plant species diversity in the mountainous Region of Ili River Valley, Xinjiang. Environ Monit Assess 177, 681–694 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-010-1665-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-010-1665-3

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