Research On Vertical Patterns Of Plant Species Richness Of Subtropical Mountains In China

The exploration of species richness is one of the basic problems of ecology and biogeography. With complex variety of plants, the richness patterns of Chinese subtropical montane vegetation are full of variety. However, there are still few corresponding researches, especially the comprehensive study of multiple montane. Based on the literature analysis, this dissertation adopted Chinese subtropical montane as study area where we selected30general climate indexes and18representative nature reserves, and species patterns and climate data are come from the published literature, monographs and network database, respectively. According to the classification of Tree layer, shrub layer, herb, woody plants and total plant species, we screened out the most significant climatic factors impact on species richness by calculating the correlation of the species richness and climatic factors, and discussed the impact of climatic factors on the montane vegetation species richness patterns.The results show that:(1) The woody plant and total plant species richness are affected by wetness index (HI) strongly. Most of the woody plant and total plant species richness decreases with the increasing of wetness index (HI);(2) There’re more significant climatic factors affecting tree layer plant species richness patterns relatively. For example, the mean temperature of driest quarter (BIO9) and wetness index (HI), in most of the mountains, the tree layer plant species richness will increase with the BIO9increase and decrease with the HI increase;(3) The tree layer species richness is sensitive to the variation of BIO17, which indicates that BIO17might be a curcial climatic factor influencing the pattern of tree layer species richness;(4) For herb and shrub species richness, there is no significant correlation between them and climatic factors. Various climatic factors have less impact on herb species richness.This study is designed to study the relationship between the subtropical montane vegetation species richness patterns and climatic factors, seek the climatic factors that affect the pattern of vegetation species richness, which is conducive to further our knowledge of the biodiversity of the laws of nature, and also provide theoretical basis for vegetation biodiversity conservation and vegetation restoration.