Distribution and in situ conservation of a relic oil woody species yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium Bunge) base on China’s National Nature Reserves
Author and article information
Abstract
Conservation and protected areas have been recognized as the last shelter for wild animal and plant species. To understand the Chinese wild Xanthoceras sorbifolium contemporary and future (next 30-50 years) distribution under the anticipated climate change and to improve the species’ in situ conservation strategy within China’s National Nature Reserves network, we used BiodiversityR to predict the species’ distribution utilizing the method’s “always-suitable” map concept. Then, we delineated the “always-suitable” distribution areas with the existing China’s National Nature Reserves to identify potential conservation areas after considering the role of human influence (i.e., utilization) and the anticipated changes of climate change. Seven bioclimatic variables predictors and 12 Environmental Niche Modelling sub-models successfully contributed to the final model assembly (AUC = 0.916, kappa = 0.398). The species range delineation indicated that 71 of the 427 National Nature Reserves were included in the “always-suitable” area, accounting for 26,007 km2 (1.58% of the species total distribution). This mapping endeavour highlighted the anticipated negative impact of climate change with 15-20% habitat decline and expected species’ distribution centers shift from the country’s northwest to the southeast. Since woody plants with bio-energy potential have increased economic values for their environment-friendly predisposition, our results predicts X. sorbifolium continuous deterioration. The adoption of flexible management strategy embracing acceptable tradeoff between conservation and development/utilization within China’s National Nature Reserves could effectively alleviate the expected species decline.
Cite this as
2017. Distribution and in situ conservation of a relic oil woody species yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium Bunge) base on China’s National Nature Reserves. PeerJ Preprints 5:e2965v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2965v1Author comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
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Supplemental Information
Table S1
Occurrence data of X. sorbifolium from different resources
Table S2
Generalized Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) used for final calibration and prediction of climatic space
Table S3
Generalized Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) used for final calibration and prediction of climatic space
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Qing Wang conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables.
Li Yang conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables.
Sailesh Ranjitkar analyzed the data.
Jun-Jie Wang performed the experiments.
Xin-Rui Wang performed the experiments.
Dong-Xu Zhang performed the experiments.
Zi-Yang Wang performed the experiments.
Yan-Zi Huang performed the experiments.
Yi-Ming Zhou performed the experiments.
Zhi-Qi Deng performed the experiments.
Lubei Yi performed the experiments.
Xiao-Feng Luan performed the experiments.
Yousry A El-Kassaby conceived and designed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Wen-Bin Guan conceived and designed the experiments.
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
Supplement Tables
Funding
W Guan is funded by Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (NO. 2013GA105004). QW is supported by Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
