Abstract: To understand the distribution pattern and influencing factors of plant community and diversity along the altitude gradient, we examined plant community types, plant diversity and phylogenetic diversity of mountain steppe in Luoshan, Ningxia, and analyzed the relationship between the plant community and its diversity and environmental driving factors. The results showed that the main community types in the mountain steppe were Asterothamnus centraliasiaticus community, Caragana tibetica community, Convolvulus tragacanthoides community, Stipa bungeana community, Stipa breviflora＋Ajania achilloides community, Artemisia frigida community, Roegneria alashanica＋S. breviflora＋Hedysarum polybotrys community, S. breviflora＋Stipa grandis community, S. grandis＋S. bungeana community, Cyperus glomeratus community, S. grandis community and Carex aridula community. The distribution of mountain steppe community was mainly affected by altitude, soil alkali-hydrolyzed nitrogen, water content, available potassium, silt and organic matter contents, with altitude and soil water content having the greatest effects (P<0.01). The Patrick index and phylogenetic diversity index (PD) of plant community showed an increasing trend with the altitude increase, the Shannon index and Pielou index showed a unimodal trend, and the phylogene-tic structure gradually changed from aggregation to dispersion. There was a significant positive correlation between species diversity index and PD index. Shannon index was negatively correlated with net relatedness index (NRI). Plant species diversity and phylogenetic diversity of mountain steppe were mainly affected by soil water content, available potassium, total nitrogen, silt and sand contents. NTI was significantly affected by altitude, while the NRI index was significantly affected by soil silt content.

Key words: mountain grassland, community classification, species diversity, phylogenetic diversity, soil factor