College of Forestry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, P. R. China
Abstract:
Twenty-five tree species indigenous to Guangdong Province were chosen in this study to portray their distribution patterns
in relation to environmental factors. Both data of species distribution and environmental factors were tabulated based on
a digitized map of Guangdong Province gridded at 0.5° latitude ×0.5° longitude. Grid-based diversity was mapped using DMAP,
a distribution mapping program, and horizontal patterns were assessed using Kruskal-Wallis tests. The diversity center of
the indigenous tree species under study is located north of 23° N. These tree species exhibit significant latitudinal variation
(P=0.007 4), but no significant longitudinal difference (P=0.052 2). Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS) identified five different ecological species groups, while Canonical
Correspondence Analysis (CCA) showed the distribution of tree species along each of the five environmental gradients. An understanding
of the environmental correlates of distribution patterns has great implication for the introduction of the indigenous tree
species for afforestation.
Supported by Key Research Program of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2002C20703) and Key Research Program of Guangdong Provincial
Department of Forestry (Grant No. 2002-12)]