Measuring Pattern Diversity of Hubei Province Vegetation Based on Affinity Analysis

Taking formation as an index, the vegetation pattern diversity of Hubei Province was measured by affinity analysis. Results showed that mosaic diversity (m) of the Hubei Province vegetation landscape was 4.071, the landscape was complicated and there was no obvious ecological gradient. According to mean affinities (MA), the Hubei Province vegetation pattern was divided into three categories: the first central point category included vegetation from Wuhan City, Xiangyang City, Huanggang City and Suizhou City, which were typical, common, and played a key role in coupling patches in the whole vegetation pattern; the second outer point category included vegetation from Hefeng County, Lichuan City and Xianfeng County, which were rare, native and had important significance in composing the specificity and diversity of the whole landscape; the third middle point category included vegetation from Huangshi City, Jingzhou City, Jingmen City, and Yichang City (totally 14 administrative division units), which showed universality and rarity, were moderate, occupied more habitat space, and constituted the foundation of the whole vegetation pattern. Sorting mean similarity (MS) from central points to outer points showed that the similarity of adjacent regions was high. Northwest, Southeast and the Jianghan plain of Hubei formed the universality of the whole vegetation pattern; however Southwest Hubei constituted the specificity of the vegetation pattern. Large differences existed in the vegetation patterns between east and west Hubei Province, and the vegetation patterns were complicated.