PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE LICHEN COMMUNITY STRUCTURE IN FOREST ECOSYSTEM OF WESTERN TIANSHAN MOUNTAINS
新疆天山西部山脉森林生态系统地衣群落结构的初步研究

In this paper, the authors used cluster analysis to study the lichen community structure in the forest ecosystem of the Western Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang according to the spot survey results for years. The results showed that in this area the lichen species can be divided into six communities: 1) Leptogium saturninum+Cladonia humilis+Physcia caesia community; 2) Cladonia amaurocraea+Cladonia cornuta+Cladonia sulphurina community; 3) Physcia caesia+Physcia dimidiata community; 4) Thamnolia subuliformis+Peltigera leucophlebia community; 5) Umbelicaria virginis + Parmelia saxatili community; 6) Allantoparmelia almquistii + Cetraria laevigata community. The lichens grow on bark of trees, rotten wood, mossy land, rocks, grassland and so on .The distribution of the lichens is mainly dependent on humidity, temperature, illumination, elevation, soil moisture and pH value of the environment. Some lichen species distributed in this area have economic and medicinal value and can act as air pollution indicators. Therefore, we suggest strengthening the management and reservation of the vegetation in this area. The minimum area of the corticolous lichen community of the western Tianshan Mountains was also studied by the method of the mean similarity coefficients of Sorensen and Kulcinsky. We discovered that in the western Tianshan Mountains the minimum areas of the corticolous lichens for qualitative and quantitative determination are 25-50 cm 2 and 51-72 cm 2 respectively, and the phytosociological study of the corticolous communities of the western Tianshan Mountains was performed by integral sampling.