%0 Journal Article %A Xin-Ting WANG %A Ya-Li HOU %A Fang LIU %A Ying CHANG %A Wei WANG %A Cun-Zhu LIANG %A Bai-Ling MIAO %T Point pattern analysis of dominant populations in a degraded community in Leymus chinensis + Stipa grandis steppe in Inner Mongolia, China %D 2011 %R 10.3724/SP.J.1258.2011.01281 %J Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology %P 1281-1289 %V 35 %N 12 %X

Aims Steppe dominated byStipa grandis and Leymus chinensis is the zonal vegetation in the temperate steppe region of China and eastern Eurasia. It has been heavily disturbed by overgrazing in China. Our objective was to investigate the spatial patterns of dominant populations in a degraded community of steppe.
Methods We used photography orientation to measure the patterns of dominant populations in a degraded community of typical steppe. We used complete spatial randomness, Poisson cluster process and double-cluster process to analyze the patterns of dominant populations based on point pattern.
Important findings The patterns of dominant populations ofL. chinensis, Agropyron michnoi, S. grandis and Cleistogenes squarrosa fit the nested double-cluster process at all scales in the community block of 5 m × 5 m. This ecological phenomenon may be induced by facilitation.

%U https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.3724/SP.J.1258.2011.01281