Correlation between vegetation and environment at different levels in an arid, mountainous region of China

Vegetation patterns and spatial organization are influenced by the changing environmental conditions and human activities. However, the effect of environment on vegetation at different vegetation classification levels has been unclear. We conducted an analysis to explore the relationship between environment and vegetation in the land use/land cover (LULC), vegetation group, vegetation type, and formation and subformation levels using redundancy analysis with seven landscape metrics and 33 environmental factors in the upper reaches of the Heihe River basin in an arid area of China to clarify this uncertainty. Atmospheric counter radiation was the most important factor at the four levels. The effect of soil was the second determinant factor at three levels (except in vegetation formation and subformation level). The number of variables whose relationship to vegetation reached significant levels varied from 26 to 28, and 20 variables were the same at all four levels. The factors affecting vegetation were basically the same at vegetation group level and vegetation-type level. It was sufficient to analyze the relationship between environmental and vegetation patterns only in LULC, vegetation group and vegetation formation and subformation level in mountainous regions; different factors should be considered at different vegetation levels.