Spatial Heterogeneity of Vegetation in China

The spatial heterogeneity and ecological characteristics of 74 vegetation types and the lack of vegetation type within the 9.6 million km² of Chinese territory were studied using data from the China vegetation map. The analysis used 877 large quadrats 10 mm×10 mm (actual size 100 km×100 km), which covered about 8.77 million km². Each large-quadrat was divided into four small 5 mm×5 mm quadrats (actual size 50 km×50 km). The frequency of occurrence of all vegetation types was recorded in each small quadrat. The survey using the Shiyomi method of vegetation analysis based on the beta-binomial distribution was adopted to describe the frequency of occurrence and spatial heterogeneity for each kind of vegetation. The weighted average heterogeneity of all the vegetation types in the landscape provides a measure of the landscape level heterogeneity which describes the spatial intricacy of the existing vegetation composition. The maximum spatial vegetation heterogeneity was 0.8620 in the frigid-temperate coniferous forest of Larix (V₁), which dominates cold moist northeast China. The minimum spatial heterogeneity with a low occurrence was the Caragana tibetica in the gravel desert in the western Yellow River Hetao area. The minimum occurrence with a low spatial heterogeneity was the Monsoon rainforest on rock in Guangxi and Yunnan Provinces. The vegetation types on the Qing-Zang Plateau were found to be representative of Chinese vegetation because of the very high occurrence and spatial heterogeneity of these vegetation types. The weighted average of the heterogeneity was 0.677, while the vegetation diversity index was 3.29.