Abstract: Clonal plants have some responses to high drought and salt stress not only at the plant individual level, but also at the level of population distribution pattern and population relationship. In this study, the Ripley’s K(r) and L(r) functions and the spatial point pattern analysis were used to research the plant communities consisted of four typical clonal plant species in the Ebinur Lake Wetland Nature Reserve. The results show that the phalanx clonal plant species, such as Karelinia caspia and Phragmites australis, clustered mainly at a scale of 1-5 m, while the guerrilla ones, such as Apocynum venetum and Poacynum pictum, scattered randomly at a scale of 0-1 m, clustered at a scale of 1-4.5 m, and equidistributed at a scale of 4.5-5 m. There was a positive correlation between K. caspia and P. australis with A. venetum and P. pictum, but a negative one between them at a scale of 0-5 m. Under a risk of high drought and salt stress, the clonal plants were more like to cluster together, relating to the physiological integration and positive correlation between these plants.

Key words: clonal plant, plant community, spatial pattern, drought and salt stress, Ebinur Lake, Wetland Nature Reserve