Abstract: The spatial distribution of bio and abiotic factors in ecosystem has the features of spatial heterogeneity in general, and spatial heterogeneity is important in the function and process of ecosystem at a variety of scales. In this paper, semivariance theory and methods were used to study the degree, composition, scale and pattern of spatial heterogeneity of vegetation coverage and soil environment factors, and their relationships in the Fukang oasis desert ecotone of Xinjiang. With block kriging in the studied area of sampling, the spatial pattern of each factor was expressed in three dimensions as well. The results indicated that except the little spatial autocorrelation of salt salinity, there existed a spatial autocorrelation above mean of the other factors, and the spatial variation was mainly limited to smaller scales. The vegetation coverage, for which auto correlated spatial heterogeneity was a main component, had a high degree of spatial heterogeneity with obvious spatial pattern at the scale of 3 km. From the perspective of spatial distributions, there existed a remarkable difference between soil holard and soil pHvalue in the studied area. Besides this, the higher value areas interleaved with the lower ones, significant positive correlations were observed between herbage coverage and soil factors (surface SHand SPH), and shrub coverage depended on the deep SH. The difference of spatial heterogeneity and pattern between SCand HCindicated the different ecological function and process in the ecosystem.

Key words: Oasis-desert ecotone, Vegetation coverage, Soil factors, Spatial heterogeneity