Plant diversity-productivity patterns in the alpine steppe environment of the Central Tianshan Mountains

The biodiversity-productivity relationship is an important topic in the research of bio- diversity and ecosystem function. The plant diversity-productivity pattern is commonly unimodal and positively correlated. This paper researches the characteristics of plant diversity-productivity patterns in the Bayanbuluk alpine steppe in the central Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China, and analyzes the effects of environmental factors on the distribution of plant communities, species composition, plant diversity and productivity in the steppe. The results show a positive correlation between plant diversity and productivity. DCCA (detrended canonical correspondence analysis) ordination reveals a significant relationship between the effects of air temperature, soil moisture content, available soil nitrogen, relative humidity and pH value on the distribution and composition of plant communities. There are significant correlations between the soil moisture content, relative humidity, pH value, air temperature and species richness and the aboveground biomass of Gramineae and Cyperaceae, and also significant correlations between the relative humidity, pH values and the total aboveground biomass of plant communities.