Flora And Taxnomy Of Liverworts In Eastern Tianshan,Xinjiang

Eastern Tianshan starts from the east of Uzbekistan Kizilkum Desert, continues in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, extends into the territory of Xinjiang in China, and ends in Gobi Desert the east of Kumul City. With the length of more than 2500 km from east and west, The Tianshan has the widest range in north of Pamir that reaches at least 800 km. The average altitude of Tianshan is around 4000 m, and the highest point in the Tianshan, Tumur Peak(Victory Peak), reaches 7435.3 m above sea level. In this study, species diversity, flora and a comparison of similarity of liverworts between Xinjiang and adjacent areas have been done. Results are as follows: 1. More than 860 liverwort specimens, as part of 72 species, 33 genera and 21 familie s of Xinjiang liverworts have been collected from the Eastern Tianshan. Among the co llected species, one species is new to China, twofamily,five genera and 23 species are new to Xinjiang. Eight species are newly recorded from Eastern Tianshan. 2. The Eastern Tianshan Liverworts have six dominant families, including 12 genera a nd 44 species that account for 60.11% of the total number of species. Five dominant genera is including 30 species account for 43.06 % of the total number of species 3. The flora of liverworts of the Eastern Tianshan, divided into nine area-types, is do minated by the North Temperate element that is representing 55.6 % of the total speci es. It is followed by East Asia element(13.21%), Old World Temperate element(8.82%), Endemic to China element(5.88%), East Asia and Norht American element(5.88%), Temperate Asia element(5.88%) and Asia element(2.94 %). 4. Comparison of genus and species composition between the Eastern Tianshan and 7 adjacent areas, shows that the Eastern Tianshan possess the closest similarity affinities of genera with Changbaishan(30%), the Altay Two River Sources Nature Reserve(28.89%), Wulanba-Shipinggou Nature Reserve(21.43%),Kanas Nature Reserve(21.42%) Bailongjiang Valley in Gansu Province(21.41%), Helanshan(16.21%), and Karakuru m-West Kurum Area(11.76%); whereas have the closest similarity affinities of species with the Altay Two River Sources Nature Reserve(15.91%), Changbaishan(14.73%), and Wulanba-Shipinggou Nature Reserve(11.36%). 5. The community of the Eastern Tianshan Liverworts is divided into four types: Geo phyta(66.67%), Epixylophyta(62.5%), Petrophyta(51.39%) and Hydrophyta(4.17 %). 6. Liverworts in Eastern Tianshan are mainly distribution in six types of vertical distr ibution: alpine desert, alpine prairies, alpine forestes, subalpine steppe, alpine grasslan d and alpine cushion vegetation. Sixty-three species, about 87.5 % of the total 72 sp ecies distributed in alpine forests.