According to 2011 statistics, the vegetation of the Paracel Islands belongs to the tropical vegetation type. Its total land area is 7.6047 square kilometers, and its forestry area is about 1.0352 square kilometers, accounting for about 13.61% of the total area; the total area of its vegetation is 3.3251 square kilometers, and the coverage rate is 43.72%. The forest type is Coral Island Tropical Evergreen Forest. The area of trees and shrubs in the tropical evergreen forests of coral islands in the sea is not large, about 2.8678 square kilometers. Among them, the arbor forest is 0.7974 square kilometers, the shrub forest is 1.8326 square kilometers, the beach sand herb and creeping vine plants are 0.3681 square kilometers, and the rest are beaches and reefs without plant growth.
According to 2011 statistics, the vegetation of the Paracel Islands is dominated by maple trees, coastal trees, silver hair trees, croissants, etc., mostly single-excellent communities with patchy distribution, and the main plantations are casuarina and coconut.
Animal resources
Animal Resources(3)
The Paracel Islands reefs are one of the world's four most famous types of highly productive regions. There are 432 species of coral reef fish in the Paracel Islands, accounting for 81.3% of the number of marine fish species in the region. There are 6 genera and 6 species of acaciae corals in the marine benthic family, 7 species in 2 genera of hydra corals, 11 species of staghorn corals belonging to the intertidal coelenterate family, 5 species of honeycomb corals, 3 species of coastal corals, 3 species of cup corals, 3 species of wood corals, 3 species of Shizhi family, 3 species of apical willow corals, 2 species of fungal corals, 2 species of soft willow corals, 1 species of folded leaf corals, 1 species of comb corals, 1 species of loquat corals, 1 species of lilac corals, 1 species of iron star corals, and 1 species of soft corals. There is 1 species of lychoxylum family, 1 species of lychoxylum family, etc. [15]
A total of 41 species of benthic crustaceans were found in the Xisha sea, belonging to 13 families and 28 genera, of which the largest number of short-tailed species, a total of 25 species, belonged to 5 families and 15 genera, the main crabs are fan crabs, spider crabs, pike crabs, magnetic crabs, frog crabs, king crabs, diamond crabs, etc., with the largest number of species in the fan crab family, a total of 6 genera and 11 species. There are about 200 kinds of shrimp resources, the main species are splendid lobster, dense-haired lobster, Chinese lobster, black shrimp, Japanese shrimp, close new shrimp, large imitation shrimp, eagle claw shrimp, krill, sugar shrimp. [15]
There are 26 species of benthic molluscs in 19 families, 25 genera and 26 species in the Xisha Islands, second only to crustaceans, and the second in the total number of benthic species in the Lesisa Sea. Among the bivalves, there are 3 genera and 3 species in the family Cockleidae, 3 species in 2 genera of the Clam Family, and 2 species in 2 genera of the Family Clamidae. There are 287 species of intertidal molluscs in 51 families. The average biological density of swimming fish in the Xisha Reef Area is higher than that of the open sea, and the density of plum seabream is the highest, mainly concentrated in the sea areas such as East Island, Woody Island and Qilian Island. [15]
Energy resources
The Paracel Islands are windy all year round, rich in wind resources, and the average annual wind speed is more than 5 to 6 meters per second, which is the optimal wind speed for wind power generation. The average monthly wind speed in each month of the year is between 4 and 8 m/ s, the annual static wind frequency <3%, the average monthly wind speed of more than 7 months exceeds 5 m / s, the effective wind speed (3 ~ 20 m / s) hours is 6000 ~ 8000 hours, and the average daily can reach 16 ~ 18 hours. Effective wind speed hours are the highest in winter, followed by summer, and the least in spring. The highest is November, the monthly effective wind speed hours reach 590 to 700 hours, an average of 20 hours per day, the lowest is April, the monthly effective wind speed hours are also 380 to 435 hours, an average of 13 to 15 hours per day. [16]
The annual effective wind energy density of the Paracel Islands is an average of 180 to 285 W/m, and the monthly effective wind energy density is above 75 W/m, up to 495 W/m; the annual effective wind energy is more than 1050 kWh/m, the Yongle Islands is as high as 1800 kWh/m, the effective wind energy of each month throughout the year is more than 29 kWh/m, the Yongle Islands is above 58 kWh/m, up to 345 kWh/m, and there are 8 months of effective wind energy of 100 kWh/m or more. Three of these months reached more than 210 kWh/m; For six months, the Xuande Islands had effective wind energy of more than 100 kWh/m, up to a maximum of 173 kWh/m. According to China's wind energy regionalization indicators, the Paracel Islands and the sea area where they are located belong to the wind energy-rich area.