Research On Vegetation Pattern Of China At Large Scale Based On Statistical Thermodynamics

Uncovering the relationship between the large scale distributions of plants and climatic factors is one of the basic and challenging questions.Climatic factors restrict the geographical distribution of plants,while plant reflects the characters of climatic factors and heavily influences the climate.Based on the statistic thermodynamics theory and ecologically empirical facts,we developed the ecological statistic thermodynamics theory.A study on the relationship between large scale distributions of plants in China and annual average temperature and precipitation is focused.The following research findings can be described:(1)To study the large scale distributions of plants in China,we defined basic plant particles,process-based plant particles and pattern-based plant particles corresponding to formation and subformation,vegetation types,and biomes.The foundations of the definitions are:a)the requirement of the theoretical and empirical study of ecological statistic thermodynamic theory,and b)the prior empirical studies and the Vegetation Map of China(1:100 million).Based on the statistic thermodynamic plant equilibrium analysis of plant particle systems on different ecological scales,a plant community classification system and a plant particle system was constructed.Then the large-scale plant distribution of China was demonstrated in T-P phase diagram.Accordingly,we established the ecological statistic thermodynamic method for analyzing the large scale distributions of plants in China.(2)We performed the statistic thermodynamic plant equilibrium analysis on the basic plant particle system in seven temperature zones including tropic,subtropics and warm temperature zone.Based on the analysis,the 40 vegetation types described in Zhang et al.were re-divided into 126 mid-scale plant communities,and a process-based plant particle system was constructed.(3)Based on empirical precipitation index,we conducted the statistic thermodynamic plant equilibrium analysis on the basic plant particles in precipitation zones.The 128 plant communities recorded in literature were re-divided into 182 plant communities.Simultaneously,we constructed a plant community classification system or process-based plant particle system which is consistent with the temperature zones and the empirical precipitation index.(4)Based on the equilibrium calculation of the plant process particle systems in high-resolution grids(e.g.0.5?×50mm)and the distribution of equilibrium grid points in T-P diagram,we classified plant communities or process-based plant particle system into 31 plant biomes,and constructed the pattern-based plant particle system.Subsequently,the distribution patterns of plant biomes were demonstrated in T-P ecological diagram,with application of statistical software and Matlab.This study initially demonstrated the distribution patterns of Chinese plant biomes in T-P ecological diagram objectively,and uncovered the relationship between the large-scale distribution patterns of Chinese plant and climatic hydrothermal conditions.Theoretically,it laid a solid foundation for solving the classic ecological problem,i.e.,the relationship between the large-scale distribution patterns of plants and climatic hydrothermal conditions.