Geographic distribution, conservation effectiveness, and gaps for national key protected wild plants in China

Abstract

National key protected wild plants (NKPWPs) are species with important conservation value based on genetics, ecology, culture, and/or scientific research, which are also confronted with serious threats. However, their geographical distribution patterns and conservation status remain unclear. In this study, we compiled 1032 species of NKPWPs. We measured the diversity to identify hotspots of NKPWPs based on species richness, weighted range size rarity and a complementarity‐based analysis. Comparing the distribution and hotspots of NKPWPs with the coverage of Chinese nature reserves (NRs), we assessed conservation effectiveness and identified conservation gaps. The results identified 13 diversity hotspots; only 9.5% of them were covered by NRs with >30% of the grid cell area, and even 19.5% were not covered at all by NRs. Overall, 44.7% of NKPWPs were effectively protected by national NRs. Despite this success, 571 species in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangxi, Guangdong, southern Hainan, Taiwan, and northern Xinjiang remain unprotected by NRs. The protected proportion of plants with first‐level protection was lower than that of plants with second‐level protection. The low overall proportion of protected hotspots indicates that the conservation outlook for NKPWPs is not optimistic. This study identifies priority conservation areas and conservation gaps and provides a scientific reference for the conservation of wild plants in China.

Geographical distribution and conservation strategy of national key protected wild plants of China

“…Our results indicate that NKPWPs generally show a heterogeneous distribution in which species richness was high in the west and low in the east, and high in the south and low in the north, in agreement with the distribution of higher plants in China 1 and previous results. 47 These results were also consistent with the high biodiversity in southwestern mountainous areas with the high habitat heterogeneity and relatively little disturbance in China. 48 The NKPWPs diversity hotspots identified in this study were basically distributed within the priority areas for biodiversity conservation in China announced by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China in 2015 ( https://www.mee.gov.cn/gkml/hbb/bgg/201601/W020160106364696044586.rar ), further validating the prioritization of areas for biodiversity conservation in China.…”

“…However, our results provide new insights into the distribution and conservation effectiveness of NKPWPs in comparison with previous results based on studies of specific taxa (e.g., Orchidaceae 49 and Rhododendron 50 ) or NKPWPs based on specimens 51 or large grids. 47 We detected a higher species conservation rate (61.49%) than previous estimates (44.70%) 47 and a lower minimum area required to conserve all species (1.37%) ( Figure S1 ) than previous estimates (4.8%). 47 Twenty-seven hotspot regions included about 424 of 444 hotspot grid cells, containing 987 species and occupying about 89.65% of the total area.…”

“… 47 We detected a higher species conservation rate (61.49%) than previous estimates (44.70%) 47 and a lower minimum area required to conserve all species (1.37%) ( Figure S1 ) than previous estimates (4.8%). 47 Twenty-seven hotspot regions included about 424 of 444 hotspot grid cells, containing 987 species and occupying about 89.65% of the total area. We identified seven new hotspot regions, including the Changbai Mountains, southern Wuyi Mountains, the Hengshan-southern Luoxiao Mountains, Mufu Mountains, eastern Nanling-Jiulian Mountains, Ailao-Wuliang Mountains, and Que’er-Shaluli Mountains.…”

Present status, future trends, and control strategies of invasive alien plants in China affected by human activities and climate change

“…Finally, the database of IAP occurrence data employed in this study was reviewed by several taxonomists with professional expertise (Supporting information). The georeferencing process was optimized in this study in accordance with previous studies (Xia et al 2022, Gao et al 2023, Qin et al 2023b). Thus, we obtained an occurrence database of IAPs in China, which contained 88 926 georeferenced locations of 402 IAPs.…”