The Minimum Sampling Size for Estimating Species Richness of 2 Types of Typical Alpine Meadows in Shangri-La

To clear the minimum sampling size of 2 types of typical alpine meadows, i.e., the mesophyte meadow and wet meadow, in Shangri-La a field survey was conducted in August 2019. Seven models were used to fit species-area curve data that obtained from filed investigations. Then the best model was selected to estimate the minimum sampling size for the species richness of plant community, Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Compositae and other forbs in the mesophyte meadow and wet meadow, respectively. The results showed that the species-area curves of the whole plant community, Gramineae, Compositae and other forbs could be best fitted by unsaturated models, while the species-area curves of Cyperaceae could be best fitted by saturated models. For the mesophyte meadow in Shangri-La, the minimum sampling size for the whole plant community, Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Compositae and other forbs was 72.7, 9.0, 0.16, 22.3 m² and 53.2 m², respectively. For the wet meadow, the minimum sampling size for the whole plant community, Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Compositae and other forbs was 80.5, 3.7, 2.25, 25.2 m² and 51.4 m², respectively.