title: [Alpha diversity of communities and their variety along altitude gradient on northern slope of Changbai Mountain].
abstract: From 700 to 2600 m on northern slope of Changbai Mountain, twenty plots were investigated with an interval of 100 m in altitude, and alpha diversity of communities and their variety along altitude gradient were studied. The results showed that in different successional layers of trees, or shrub and herb layers, richness and diversity decreased linearly with the increase of altitude. Tree species decreased from 19 species at 700 m to only 1 species at timberline. Shrub and herb species decreased from 20 and 61 species at 700 m to 2 and 15 species at 2600 m respectively. The peak values of richness of trees and herbs along altitude gradient were appeared just in the ecotones between different types of vegetation, and it reflected the characteristics of high species richness in ecotones.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016. hzq@iae.ac.cn
authors.forename: Zhanqing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Deyong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhihui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ding
mesh_terms: D000531:Altitude; D002681:China; D017753:Ecosystem; D063245:Plant Development; D006109:Poaceae; D014197:Trees