Vegetation and vascular plant diversity of Huzhou Island, Huizhou, China

Abstract

Human activities have an increasingly severe impact on uninhabited islands. It is beneficial to monitor and protect the vegetation diversity of uninhabited islands to master the species composition and diversity of plant communities. The vascular plants and plant communities of Huzhou Island were investigated by sample plot method. The plant species diversity was analyzed. The results showed that there were 98 species of vascular plants belonging to 88 genera and 49 families in the island. Among them, tropical and subtropical families were dominant the island. The genera floristic distribution of vascular plants was mainly pantropic distribution and secondly old word tropic distribution.The vegetation in the island could be classified into 1 vegetation type (monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest vegetation), 1 alliance (coastal hilly monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest) and 2 associations (Ficus microcarpa and Eucalyptus urophylla - Myrtle). The change trend of community richness, evenness and diversity was consistent. This study can provide scientific data for resource protection and development of uninhabited island.