Niche characteristics of main plant species in Putuo Mountain, Zhejiang Province of East China

By the method of sampling plot investigation and using the importance value of plant species as an indicator of resource status, this paper studied the niche breadth and niche overlap of the main plant species in Putuo Mountain, based on the calculations with the Levins niche breadth and niche overlap formulae. In the main plant communities in the Mountain, Cyclobalanopsis glauca, Camellia sinensis, and Carex tristachya had the largest niche breadth in the tree, shrub, and herb layers, respectively. There existed different degrees of niche overlap among the plant species in different layers, being the largest in herb layer, followed by in tree layer, and in shrub layer. Overall, the niche overlap among the plant species was small, with an evident niche differentiation and a larger differentiation in resource use ways. Distribution frequency was one of the major factors affecting the plant species niche breadth and niche overlap. The larger the distribution frequency, the larger the plant species niche breadth and the probability of the formation of the plant species niche overlap.