Effect of Quadrat Shape on Spatial Point Pattern Performance of <i>Haloxylon ammodendron</i>

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the natural growth of Haloxylon ammodendron forest in Moso Bay, southwest of Gurbantunggut Desert. Random sample analysis was used to analyze the spatial point pattern performance of Haloxylon ammodendron population. ArcGIS software was used to summarize and analyze the spatial point pattern response of Haloxylon ammodendron population. The results showed that: 1) There were significant differences in the performance of point pattern analysis among different random quadrants. The paired t-test for variance mean ratio showed that the P values were 0.048, 0.004 and 0.301 respectively, indicating that the influence of quadrat shape on the performance of point pattern analysis was significant under the condition of the same optimal quadrat area. 2) The comparative analysis of square shapes shows that circular square is the best, square and regular hexagonal square are the second, and there is no significant difference between square and regular hexagonal square. 3) The number of samples plays a decisive role in spatial point pattern analysis. Insufficient sample size will lead to unstable results. With the increase of the number of samples to more than 120, the V value and P value curves will eventually stabilize. That is, stable spatial point pattern analysis results are closely related to the increase of the number of samples in random sample square analysis.