The Tibetan Plateau in Relation to the Vegetation of China

Vegetation zones of the eastern coast of China represent a series of forests from the tropical to southeastern coast to the northwestern interior (11).These patterns are quite different from those in western Eurasia where the vegetation pattern of the western part from south to north is: tropand savanna, Mediterand coniferous forest.This series shows a pattern, drier in the south and moister in the north, that basically reflects Hadley's classic diagram of atmospheric circulations (10, 25, 26, 28).Therefore, the differences between the eastern and western parts of Eurasia reflect an *asymmetric" distribution of vegetation (Fig. 1).The geographic distribution of vegetation in China-Eastern Asia should be interpreted primarily in terms of patterns of atmospheric circulation in Asia because it reflects the "projection" of atmospheric circulation onto the land surface of the earth.Recent research in atmospheric physics indicates that the Tibetan Plateau in eastern Asia is a huge "Hot Island" that hinders atmospheric circulation (5).The powerful thermal and orographic effects of the Plateau cause great changes in the atmospheric circulation of the northern hemisphere, especially in Asia, and have a direct effect on patterns of vegetation in that part of the orld rid.