Seasonal Variation in Structure and Diversity of Vegetation Community in the Southern Edge of Mosuowan Desert, Xinjiang, China
The southern edge of Mosuowan Desert is a branch of Gurbantunggut Desert. We chose three plots along the edge of the oasis to the hinterland of this desert and investigated the composition of vegetation and a, β diversity in spring and autumn. The results showed: (1) 35 kinds of higher plants in the three plots, accounting for 17％ of the total species in Gurbantunggut Desert. Ephemeral plants, perennial plants and annual herbs separately accounted for 25.7％, 25.7％, and 48.6％ of the total number in Mosuowan. Twelve species of Chenopodiaceae, and 8 of Compositae and 6 of Gramineae were found. (2) Annual herbs were of high value in spring. The value of Ceratocarpus arenarius was two or three times of other species.Perosimonia sibirica and Salsola paulsenii were also of high value and had no significant seasonal variation. Seriphidium terrae-albae was of the highest value in autumn. This species had distinctive ecological effect. (3) As a result of the appearance of ephemeral plants in spring, species richness in spring was higher than in autumn. Meanwhile, α diversity and evenness increased from the oasis to hinterland of the desert with a distinct gradient variation, while β diversity in autumn was higher than spring. (4) The α and β diversity and evenness of ephemeral plants were low. No environmental gradient variation was observed. Some ephemeral and ephemeroid plants, such as Eremurus inderiensis and Schismus arabicus, had higher values than other species except Haloxylon ammodendron. Through a contrast, we found that the onset of local strong sandstorm coincided with the decrease in ephemeral plants. Therefore, we suggest that the relationship between growth of ephemeral plants and onset of sandstorm be further studied on a larger scale.
Community structure Ephemeral plant Windbreak and sand-fixation
Jia Y M Liu T Yan P Zhang Y H Luo C Wei P Cui Y H Xie J B
College of Life Science, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology Agriculture of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Shihezi 8
国际会议
北京
英文
176-183
2006-10-14（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）