Analysis on the macro-pattern of meta-plant-community in Thousand Island Lake area using RS-GIS methods

The macro-pattern of a typical meta-plant-community in the area of Thousand Island Lake,Chun'an country,Hangzhou,was studied using the methods of remote sensing and GIS. The values of NDVI of islands with different sizes,and the landscape pattern of island patches with different grades of NDVI were studied.The results revealed the significant positive correlation between the sizes of islands and their NDVI values.The landscape pattern of patches with various NDVI grades within the different types of islands influenced on its overall level of NDVI values to some extent.The entire landscape suffered from high degree of fragmentation.The results showed that the larger the island area is,the smaller the density of patches with various NDVI grades is,the smaller the degree of fragmentation is,the stronger the cohesion of patches with same NDVI grade is,the more diverse the landscape types is,and the evener the distribution of patches of each type in the landscape is.Such vegetation pattern is conducive to the migration and colonizaticm of individuals or propagules of species,as well as the functional linkage between local plant communities with different NDVI grades,and the maintenance of stability of community structures,resulting the relatively high overall level of NDVI.The results of the landscape indexes of the patches with various NDVI grades reflected the macro-pattern of the meta-plant-communities in the area of Thousand Island Lake,and deepened our understanding of the landscape pattern of the area,which preliminarily tested the adaptability and feasibility of the methods of remote sensing and GIS in studying the macro-pattern of meta-plant-communities in general.