Plant community diversity in Dinghushan Nature Reserve

The species richness, evenness and species diversity of plant communities in Dinghushan Nature Reserve were investigated. The species richness index, species diversity index and the evenness index were compared for different vegetation types. The indices increased with the plant community succession, but the indices of mature forest were not the highest. Generally, the species richness order was that the shrub layerherb layertree layer, the diversity index order is that the shrub layertree layerherb layer and the evenness order is that the tree layershrub layerherb layer. The results are similar when Ⅳ(important value index) or individuals were used to measure community diversity and they are different with the results when the species coverage was used. The diversity indices did not show close relationship with plot area, especially Shannon Winner index, it is stable when the plot area reaches certain size.