Vegetation species diversity and its influencing factors in mountain desert communities in northern Xinjiang China

Abstract The desert covers 46.9% of the grassland in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (including Southern and Northern Xinjiang). In the present study, 527 plots (about 4,500 quadrats)were taken from the Junggar Desert of northern Xinjiang.The purposes of this paper are: (1) to study the composition and distribution characteristics of the main species in the Northern Xinjiang desert; (2) to estimate the diversity index of species α of different communities in different desert areas; (3) to determine the spatial distribution law of species diversity of communities in the Northern Xinjiang desert by ArcGIS 10. 1 to provide a decision-making basis for the protection and planning of plant species in the Northern Xinjiang desert.The results of this study show that: (1) the overall diversity index of plant communities is not high; the average Shannon-Wiener’s diversity index is 1.79, ranging from 0.21 to 3.33; (2) the average Pielou’s evenness indexes of life forms of different plants in the communities of different regions are 2.25 (3) the Simpson’s dominance index of the west in Northern Xinjiang desert is lower than that of the east; Patrick's richness, Pielou’s evenness and Shannon-Wiener’s diversity index of the west are higher than those of the east.