Abstract:Beta diversity effectively reflects the degree of species segmentation along environmental gradient. It is commonly used to analyze the habitat diversity. Dinghushan Natural Reserve is located in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, southern China. It belongs to the South subtropical wetness monsoon climate. Dinghushan has well-protected vegetation and high biodiversity, however, researches of beta diversity in this aera is comparatively rare. Based on the data collected from the vegetation transect with 10m wide and 1160m long of Dinghushan, the beta diversities are measured by both binary and numerical data using 5 indexes. The results show that beta diversity is influenced by sampling sizes. In south subtropical forest community, nearly 400m2 for tree layer and more than 40m2 for shrub and herb layer is needed for steady beta diversity data. Numerical data measurement is better than binary data measurement as a whole. Numerical data measurement should be pay more attention, but Cody index is a useful index for indicating ecotones. Beta diversity of Dinghushan vegetation transect decrease less obviously along altitude compared with general pattern, and βc of Dinghushan is larger than Donglingshan which lies in North China.