Multi-scale Analysis of Species Spatial Distribution Patterns and Associations in Diaoguanjing Plots in Yaoluoping National Nature Reserve

Analysis of species spatial distribution and associations contribute to understanding the mechanisms of community structure.In this paper, spatial point patterns were used to analyze the spatial distribution patterns and species associations of 36 dominant species at the scale of 0-50 m in Diaoguanjing plots in the Yaoluoping National Nature Reserve.Results indicated that species were cluster distributed at the fine scale and randomly distributed at the coarse scale.No association patterns dominated at the 0-50 m scale, but the percentage of non-correlated plant species pairs was the lowest at the scale of 10 m.No positive or negative correlated plant species pairs exceeded 20% at the 0-50 m scale.We concluded that the secondary community, habitat heterogeneity and dispersal limitation were the main factors responsible for the patterns of species distribution and associations in the studied plots.Our results will help to improve understanding of the multi-scale characteristics and mechanisms of species coexistence.