Distribution of vegetation is closely coupled with climate; the climate controls distribution of vegetation and the vegetation type reflects regional climates. To reveal vegetation climate relationships is the foundation for understanding the vegetation distribution and theoretically serving vegetation regionalization. Vegetation regionalization is a theoretical integration of vegetation studies and provides a base for physiogeographical regionalization as well as agriculture and forestry regionalization. Based on a brief historical overview on studies of vegetation climate relationships and vegetation regionalization conducted in China, we review the principles, bases and major schemes of previous vegetation regionalization and discuss on several contentious boundaries of vegetation zones in the present paper. We proposed that, under the circumstances that the primary vegetation has been destroyed in most parts of China, the division of vegetation zones/regions should be based on the distribution of primary and its secondary vegetation types and climatic indices that delimit distribution of the vegetation types. This not only reveals the closed relationship between vegetation and climate, but also is feasible practically. Although there still are divergence of views on the name and their boundaries of the several vegetation zones, it is commonly accepted that there are eight major vegetation regions in China, i.e. cold temperate needleleaf forest region, temperate needleleaf and broadleaf mixed forest region, warm temperate deciduous broadleaf forest region, subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest region, tropical monsoon forest and rain forest region, temperate steppe region, temperate desert region, and Qinghai Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau high cold vegetation region. Analyzing characteristics of vegetation and climate of major vegetation boundaries, we suggested that: 1) Qinling Mountain Huaihe River line is an important arid/humid climatic, but not a thermal climatic boundary, and thus can not also be regarded as the northern limit of the subtropical vegetation zone; 2) the northern limit of subtropical vegetation zone in China is along the northern coast of the Yangtze River, from Hangzhou Bay, via Taihu Lake, Xuancheng and Tongling in Anhui Province, through by southern slope of the Dabie Mountains, to Wuhan and its west, coinciding with a warmth index (WI) value of 130-140 ℃·month; 3) the tropical region is limited in a very small area in southeastern Hainan Island and southern edge of Taiwan Island; and 4) considering a significant difference in climates between the southern and northern parts of the warm temperate zone, we suggested that the warm temperate zone in China is divided into two vegetation regions, deciduous broadleaf woodland region and deciduous and evergreen broadleaf mixed forest region, the Qinling Mountain Huaihe River line being as their boundary. We also claimed that the zonal vegetation in North China is deciduous broadleaf woodland. Finally, we emphasized the importance of dynamic vegetation regionalization linked to climate changes.
植被气候关系与我国的植被分区
方精云1宋永昌2刘鸿雁1朴世龙1
（1.北京大学生态学系，北京1000871；2. 华东师范大学环境科学系，上海200062）
摘要：气候制约着植被的地理分布 ,植被是区域气候特征的反映和指示 ,两者之间存在密不可分的联系。揭示植被与气候之间的关系是正确认识植被分布的前提 ,是进行植被区划的理论基础。植被区划是植被研究的归纳和总结 ,是其他自然地理区划和农林业区划的基础。本文在简要回顾中国植被气候关系及植被分区的研究历史的基础上 ,对我国以往的主要植被分区原则、依据和方案进行了评述 ,对有争议的主要植被界线进行了讨论。我们认为 ,在当今我国大部分地区的原生植被已遭到破坏的现实情况下 ,根据原生植被及其衍生植被类型的分布 ,确定其分布与限制性气候因子的关系 ,以此来进行植被带 (区 )的划分 ,不仅反映植被气候间密不可分的关系 ,在实践上也便于操作。尽管在一些植被带的命名、具体界线的划定上有分歧 ,但最近的中国植被分区方案大都认为我国基本的植被区有 8至 9个 ,即针叶林、针阔叶混交林、落叶阔叶林、常绿落叶阔叶混交林、常绿阔叶林以及雨林季雨林、草原、荒漠以及高寒植被。通过分析主要植被带附近的植被、气候等特征 ,本文认为 ,1)秦岭淮河线是一条重要的水分气候带 ,而不是温度带 ,不是亚热带植被的北界 ;2 )我国亚热带植被的北界基本上沿长江北岸 ,从杭州湾经太湖、安徽宣城、铜陵经大别山南坡到武汉往西，与WI值130-140OC·月一致；3）我国热带区域的面积极小，仅分布在海南岛的东南部和台湾南端及其以南地区；4）我国东部地区暖温带的水热条件南北差异甚大，建议以秦岭淮河为界，将暖温带划分为两个植被带，即落叶阔叶疏林带和落叶常绿阔叶混交林带；华北地区的地带性植被为落叶阔叶疏林。最后，本文还强调了对应于气候变化进行动态植被分区的重要性。
关键词： 中国；动态植被区划；水分气候；亚热带北界；秦岭淮河线；温度气候；植被气候关系；植被分区；植被界线
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