The study on the patterns of plant species diversity and the factors influencing these patterns forms the basis of ecology and is fundamental to conservation biology. In this paper, desert plant species diversity and soil properties (nutrient and texture) were investigated along desert region of the Heihe River Basin (HRB) to determine whether soil environmental factors influenced desert plant species diversity. We found a total of 44 shrub and herb species belonging to 40 genera of 17 families. The largest family was the Compositae, accounting for 25.0% of the total. Twenty‐four survey plots were clustered into eight plant community types. The Margalef richness (D), Simpson dominance (C), Pielou evenness (Jsw), and Shannon‐wiener (H) index differed significantly among community types. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed a relatively strong relationship between the species diversity and soil environmental factors. The first RDA axis accounted for 80.5% and 81.8% of the variation in soil nutrient and texture properties, respectively, but was not statistically significant. RDA suggested that total phosphorus (TP) and medium sand (0.25–0.5 mm) content were the only two statistically significant factors in the study area. Both classification and ordination resulted in a clear demonstration of the spatial variability of community and soil properties. In general, the distribution pattern of desert plant community was mainly related to soil nutrient and texture properties factors, but the relation was not strong. This study provides insights into desert plant diversity and community conservation of Inland HRB in arid desert ecosystems.

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The belowground bud bank plays an important role in plant communities succession and maintenance. In order to understand the response of the bud bank to the sod layer moisture, we investigated the bud bank distribution, size, and composition of six different water gradient alpine meadows through excavating in the Zoige Plateau. The results showed: (1) The alpine meadow plant belowground buds were mainly distributed in the 0–10 cm sod layer, accounting for 74.2%–100% of the total. The total bud density of the swamp wetland and degraded meadow was the highest (16567.9 bud/m3) and the lowest (4839.5 bud/m3). (2) A decrease of the moisture plant diversity showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing. Among six alpine meadows the swamp meadow plant diversity was the highest, and species richness, Simpson, Shannon–Wiener, and Pielou were 10.333, 0.871, 0.944, and 0.931, respectively. (3) The moisture was significantly positively correlated with the total belowground buds and short rhizome bud density. There were significant positive correlations with sod layer moisture and tiller bulb bud density. This study indicates that the moisture affected bud bank distribution and composition in the plant community, and the results provide important information for predicting plant community succession in the alpine meadow with future changes in precipitation patterns.