The Yuanjiang dry-hot valley features hot and dry climate, low vegetation and soil degradation. It had lush vegetation in the past, but has become degraded in recent decades. Understanding the interrelationship between species and the habitat is necessary to explain this change. In this study, a link between fern and fern allies - a group that is hypersensitive to environmental factors and their circumstances is constructed. Intensive transects and plots were designed to be proxies for extant fern and fern allies, and their habitats. Fifty years of meteorological records of precipitation and temperature along altitude and river running direction (latitudinal) were employed. Alpha and beta diversity are used to access diversity. Species_estimated, Singletons, Uniques, ACE, ICE, and Chao2, which associate to abundance and rarity, are subscribed to the correlation between fern and fern allies, and their ecosystem. Eight species, Selaginella pseudopaleifera, Aleuritopteris squamosa, Adiantum malesianum, Pteris vittata, Davallia trichomanoides, Sinephropteris delavayi, Selaginella jugorum, and Lygodium japonicum are used as indicators of a typical xeric and sun-drying habitat. The results indicate (1) accompanied by dramatically shrinking habitats, fern and fern allies are in very low diversity and abundance, whereas the rarity is relatively high; (2) for fern and fern allies, environmental factors are positive when altitude goes up; and (3) eight indicator species are latitudinally correlated with fern and fern allies along the river running direction.

Yuanjiang dry-hot valley is poorly vegetated as a fragile arid ecosystem. Although it was lushly forested in the past, it becomes a tropical montane savannah in recent decades. This study focuses on the relationship between plants and their living environments in the low land of this dry-hot valley. Plant species and their individuals are investigated in transects and plots arranging along the river channel. Alpha and beta indices are employed to cope with biodiversity change in species and environments. Estimated species, rarity and abundance indices are subscribed to the correlation among species, population size, and their living circumstances in terms of Species_estimated, Singletons, Uniques, ACE, ICE, and Chao2. Meanwhile, fifty years’ meteorological records including temperature and precipitation are collected for environmental references. The results indicate that: (1) in Yuanjiang dry-hot valley, alpha diversity is higher in the transects and plots closing to river channel than apart from while beta diversity increases from upper stream to the lower with Bray-Curtis < 0.500, but this condition is reversed in the transect perpendicular to the river; (2) tidal range contributes a lot in alpha biodiversity especially in the upper stream; (3) estimated species, rarity and abundance indices are significant in the sites closing to the river, which is strongly indicating heterogeneous habitats. (4) Solanum virginianum Ortega are screened as an indicator representing xeric environment in Yuanjiang dry-hot valley. Conclusively, plants are not flourished at the low altitude ascribed to high temperature and low water supply. More attention and ecology policy should be thrived exclusively to the microhabitat protection and environment management in this valley.