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Journal of Arid Land
Research Articles     
Influence of groundwater depth on species composition and community structure in the transition zone of Cele oasis
XiangYi LI, LiSha LIN, Qiang ZHAO, XiMing ZHANG, Frank M. THOMAS
1 Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresources in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China; 2 Cele National Station of Observation & Research for Desert Grassland Ecosystems in Xinjiang, Cele 848300, China; 3 Department of Geobotany, University of Trier, Behringstra?e 21, 54296 Trier, Germany
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Abstract  The paper analyzes the hypothesis that the distribution of dominant plant species and characteristics of plant communities are related to groundwater depth. The results showed that variations of groundwater depth impacted distributions and characteristics of dominant plant communities. However, besides groundwater depth, the community composition and species diversity were also influenced by physiognomy of the habitat. Based on the similarity coefficient, the differences between dominant plant communities were significant at different groundwater depths. Compared with other results relating to desert vegetation and groundwater depth, variations of community distribution were similar at the large spatial scale. However, in this extremely arid region, there were significant differences in community type and community succession when compared with other arid regions, especially in relationship to deep groundwater depth. With groundwater depth from deep to shallow, communities transformed with the sequence of Alhagi communities, Tamarix spp. communities, Populus communities, Phragmites communities, and Sophora communities. At groundwater depth of less than 6.0 m, the community type and composition changed, and the species diversity increased. Among these dominant species, Tamarix exhibited the biggest efficiency in resource utilization according to niche breadth, which means it possessed the best adaptability to environmental conditions at the oasis margins.

Key wordsnorthwest area of China      annual mean air temperature      climatic warming     
Published: 07 December 2010
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Cite this article:

XiangYi LI, LiSha LIN, Qiang ZHAO, XiMing ZHANG, Frank M. THOMAS. Influence of groundwater depth on species composition and community structure in the transition zone of Cele oasis. Journal of Arid Land, 2010, 2(4): 235-242.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.3724/SP.J.1227.2010.00235     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2010/V2/I4/235

[1] ShaoYong CHEN, YuanYuan SHI, YuZhen GUO, YanXiang Zheng. Temporal and spatial variation of annual mean air temperature in arid and semiarid region in northwest China over a recent 46 year period[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2010, 2(2): 87-97.