Abstract: To understand corticolous lichen species composition and its community structure characteristics, principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis methods were used to study a corticolous lichen community in the forest ecosystem of the southern mountains of Urumqi. Thirty-nine corticolous lichen species, belonging to 5 orders, 13 families and 26 genera, were found. Multivariate analysis and characteristics of habitat revealed that the corticolous lichen communities could be classified into three types: (1) Lecanora hageni (Ach.) Ach. + Physcia stellaris (L.) Nyl. + L. saligna (Schrad.) Zahlbr.; (2) Physcia aipolia (Humb.) Furm. + Ph. dimidiata (Arn.) Nyl. + Cladonia pyxidata (L.) Hoffm.; and (3) Xanthoria fallax (Hepp) Arnold. + X. elegans (Link.) Th. Fr. Community 3 had highest species diversity (1.509), then community 2 (1.109), then community 1 (1.088). Altitude and tree types were the two important environmental factors influencing the structural patterns of corticolous lichen communities in this forest ecosystem.

Key words: corticolous lichen community, multivariate data analysis, species diversity