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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (2): 1-15.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2024148

   

Vegetation community characteristics and spatial differentiation in mountain grassland in Luoshan, Ningxia

Xin GONG1,3,4(), Xin-ru HUO1,3,4, Wen LI1,3,4, Yan-dong YANG1,3,4, Chao LIU2, Wei-chun QIN2, Yan SHEN1,3,4, Guo-hui WANG1,3,4, Hong-bin MA1,3,4()   

  1. 1.College of Forestry and Prataculture,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
    2.Luoshan National Nature Reserve Administration,Wuzhong 751900,China
    3.Key Laboratory for Model Innovation in Forage Production Efficiency,Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,P. R. China,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
    4.Ningxia Grassland and Animal Husbandry Engineering Technology Research Center,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
  • Received:2024-04-29 Revised:2024-07-01 Online:2025-02-20 Published:2024-11-27
  • Contact: Hong-bin MA

Abstract:

The Ningxia Luoshan National Nature Reserve is the only water conservation forest area and regional green ecological protection barrier in the arid zone of central Ningxia. This reserve plays an important role in the protection of biodiversity, the prevention of soil erosion, and in ecological security. However, few studies have focused on the characteristics of the grassland plant community in Luoshan, or on the relationship between the characteristics of the grassland vegetation community and environmental factors. In this study, we analyzed the grassland plant community in the Luoshan Nature Reserve. We analyzed the composition of the plant community and its spatial differentiation, and the diversity characteristics of different types of grasslands and those at different altitudes. We also explored the relationship between the characteristics of the vegetation community and environmental factors. The results showed that: 1) The grassland plant community in Luoshan Nature Reserve was composed of annual and biennial herbs, perennial herbs, shrubs, and semi-shrubs, and perennial herbs accounted for the largest proportion of the community. The plant communities of desert steppe and typical grassland were dominated by grasses and weeds, while meadow steppe plant communities were dominated by weeds. As the altitude increased, except for the above-ground biomass of the community, the quantitative characteristics of the surveyed vegetation conformed to the ‘intermediate height expansion’ theory, and showed maximum values in the altitude range of 1600-2100 m. 2) As the altitude increased, the Margarlef richness index and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index of grassland plants increased to a certain point, reaching the highest values in the grassland sample plots at 2000-2100 m. This trend was unimodal, with the initial increase followed by a decrease (P<0.05). Simpson’s dominance index and Pielou’s evenness index did not change significantly with increasing altitude (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in species diversity among the meadow steppe, the typical steppe, and the desert steppe. 3) Annual precipitation, altitude, total soil nitrogen content, total soil phosphorus content, and average daily air temperature were important environmental factors that affected grassland vegetation characteristics in the study area. Among the environmental factors, annual precipitation and altitude were the main environmental factors affecting grassland vegetation, whereas total soil nitrogen content, total soil phosphorus content, and average daily air temperature were secondary environmental factors. The results of this study provide a basis for a deeper understanding of the distribution characteristics of grassland vegetation in the Luoshan Nature Reserve.

Key words: vegetation community characteristics, species diversity, altitude, spatial differentiation law, environmental factor