Abstract: In 2018,the lower part of the Keriya River was selected as the monitoring section for the research target area.Two monitoring belts were set up,and a sample belt along the longitudinal direction of the river was selected,with a total of 11 monitoring stations.Three typical sections of riverine vegetation were selected at different distances from the river,making a total of eight monitoring points,to obtain information on the growth of the arbor shrub vegetation community and the groundwater depth of each section.Through the analysis of the status of vegetation growth and community distribution in the study area and discussion of the relationship between vegetation growth and groundwater depth,it is found that in the direction of the river,the groundwater level affects the distribution of plant communities.The groundwater depth of the monitoring sections 1-6 is shallow,and the vegetation is dominated by Phragmites australis.The depth of groundwater in sections 7-11 is decreasing,and the vegetation is dominated by Populus euphratica.Within 500 m of the river channel,the vegetation coverage in the desert direction is sparser,and the depth of the groundwater is deeper.In addition,the growth indicators are significantly different at 150,200,300,400,and 500 m (P <0.01).We found that different plants have different requirements for groundwater depth: Algagi sparsifolia,Glycyrrhiza uralensis,and other shallowrooted plants were more likely to grow where there is a shallow water table,and deeprooted plants,such as Populus euphratica and Tamarix spp.,were more dominant where there was a deep water table.In the deeper (7-11) and shallower (1-6) sections of the water table,the average height of the plants was 100.50 and 149.38 cm,respectively,and the latter was 48.64% higher than the former.

Key words: groundwater depth, plant diversity, Lower Keliya River, Xinjiang