Quantitative classification and analysis of relationships between plant communities and their groundwater environment in the Ejin Desert Oasis of China
Aims Ejin Desert Oasis is a typical arid oasis in the Hexi corridor of northwestern and northern China. Water resources in the area have changed since 2000. Our objective was to classify the plant community types and determine the relationship between vegetation and environmental factors in order to evaluate the influence of water regulation on vegetation in this region.Methods We obtained data on 29 plant species from 151 study plots of natural vegetation of the Ejin Desert Oasis and classified the plant communities by two-way indicators species analysis (TWINSPAN) and correlated themwith six groundwater environmental variables using detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and detrended canonical correspondence analysis (DCCA) ordinations.Important findings Six plant associations were identified. The main factor correlated to their distribution was groundwater depth, which had more influence on the distribution of plant species and vegetation than other variables because change of groundwater depth leads to changes in both salinity and mineralization. The first ordination axis was correlated with the gradient of groundwater depth, and the second axis was correlated with pH.Compared with other areas, the scarcity of plant species and the differentiation of plant communities were obvious.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
维普
