Impacts of regional urbanization development on plant diversity within boundary of built-up areas of different settlement categories in Jinzhong Basin, China

The impact of regional urbanization development on the plant species richness was studied in this paper by taking Jinzhong Basin of Chinese Shanxi Province as the example. 54 villages, 38 towns, 8 county seats and 4 cities within the region were taken out randomly to form the samples I, II, III and IV as the investigation objects, according to the data collected from the said samples. the impact of regional urbanization development on the plant species richness was analyzed through Gleason index and ANOVA. The results show that the species richness of indigenous plants was lowest in cities and highest in villages; the species richness of neophytic plants was highest in cities and lowest in villages. Total plant species richness was the highest in the cities and lowest in towns. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.