scholarly journals Molecular dietary analysis of two sympatric felids in the Mountains of Southwest China biodiversity hotspot and conservation implications

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengyin Xiong ◽  
Dajun Wang ◽  
Hongliang Bu ◽  
Xinning Shao ◽  
Dan Zhang ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Wei Fu ◽  
Qi Ding ◽  
Zhe Sun ◽  
Tao Xu

Summary There have been calls for the expansion of protected areas (PAs) to tackle the ongoing biodiversity loss, yet it is unclear where future PAs might help to protect biodiversity in degraded landscapes under the conservation planning principles of complementarity, connectivity and cost-effectiveness. Our conservation goal is to increase the PA network coverage to up to 30% of the landscape of the Zhangjiang River Basin for target species in the karst area of southwest China, a global biodiversity hotspot. Zonation 4GUI was used to evaluate the adequacy of current PAs and to strategically expand PAs while maximizing the coverage of target species and considering ecological integrity and socioeconomic activities. The results show that significant habitat degradation has occurred across 77.9% of the basin. The current PAs cover 6.3% of the site and represent 8.7% of the total distribution of key species. With regards to the threshold of protection of 30% of the area, protecting an additional 27.2% of the site under an ecological integrity prioritization scenario and a scenario of the socioeconomic costs involved in iteration would cover 93.5% and 80.4% of the ranges of the key species, respectively. Our results can be used to inform the upcoming actions associated with karst area conservation-related policies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Wan ◽  
Huateng Huang ◽  
Jamie R. Oaks ◽  
Xuelong Jiang ◽  
L. Lacey Knowles

AbstractMountains of Southwest China (MSWC) is a biodiversity hotspot with a very unique and highly complex terrain. However, with the majority of studies focusing on the biogeographic consequences of massive mountain building, the Quaternary legacy of biodiversity for the MSWC has long been overlooked. Here, we took a comparative phylogeography approach to examine factors that shaped community-wide diversification. With data from 30 vertebrate species, the results reveal spatially concordant genetic structure, with temporally clustered divergence events during severe glacial cycles, indicating the importance of riverine barriers in the phylogeographic history of the vertebrate community. We conclude that the repeated glacial cycles are associated with temporal synchrony of divergence patterns that are themselves structured by the heterogeneity of the montane landscape has of the MSWC. This orderly process of diversifications has profound implications for conservation by highlighting the relative independence of different geographic areas in which communities have responded similarly to climate changes and calls for further comparative phylogeographic investigations to reveal the extent to which these findings might apply more broadly to other taxa in this biodiversity hotspot.


2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1942) ◽  
pp. 20202567
Author(s):  
Tao Wan ◽  
Jamie R. Oaks ◽  
Xue-Long Jiang ◽  
Huateng Huang ◽  
L. Lacey Knowles

The mountains of southwest China (MSWC) is a biodiversity hotspot with highly complex and unusual terrain. However, with the majority of studies focusing on the biogeographic consequences of massive mountain building, the Quaternary legacy of biodiversity for the MSWC has long been overlooked. Here, we took a statistical comparative phylogeography approach to examine factors that shaped community-wide diversification. With data from 30 vertebrate species, the results reveal spatially concordant genetic structure, and temporally clustered co-divergence events associated with river barriers during severe glacial cycles. This indicates the importance of riverine barriers in the phylogeographic history of the MSWC vertebrate community. We conclude that the repeated glacial cycles are associated with co-divergences that are themselves structured by the heterogeneity of the montane landscape of the MSWC. This orderly process of diversification has profound implications for conservation by highlighting the relative independence of different geographical areas in which some, but not all species in communities have responded similarly to climate change and calls for further comparative phylogeographic investigations to reveal the connection between biological traits and divergence pulses in this biodiversity hotspot.


Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 525
Author(s):  
Hui-Hong Zhang ◽  
Wen-Ling Wang ◽  
Qi Yu ◽  
Dong-Hui Xing ◽  
Zhen-Bang Xu ◽  
...  

Pollinating butterflies are an important asset to agriculture, which still depends on wild resources. Yunnan Province in Southwest China is a region with typical montane agriculture, but this resource is poorly investigated. From literature reference and specimen examination, the present study identified 554 species of pollinating butterflies (50.8% of the total butterflies) from Yunnan, with family Nymphalidae possessing the least number of pollinators (80 species, 16.0%), while the remaining four families are pollinator-rich (>73%). Tropical lowlands and mountain-valley areas possess higher species richness than those with plain terrains. The species richness of pollinating butterflies in Yunnan does not simply decline with the increase of latitude, nor is significantly different between West and East Yunnan. Zonation of pollinating butterflies using the parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) identified nine distribution zones and ten subzones. Most areas of endemism (AOE) are found in lowlands or mountain-valley areas, complexity of terrains, climates, and vegetation types are believed to be the main causes of such endemicity. The potential pollinating service of these butterflies could be great to montane agriculture with expanding areas of cash crops and fruit horticulture. Conservation strategies for pollinating butterflies may consist of preserving habitats and establishing butterfly-friendly agriculture based on local traditions.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4845 (3) ◽  
pp. 436-446
Author(s):  
ROBB BENNETT ◽  
CLAUDIA COPLEY ◽  
DARREN COPLEY

Various undescribed Cybaeina Chamberlin & Ivie (Araneae: Dictynoidea: Cybaeidae) and Cybaeina-like taxa are known from forested habitats in the west coast of North America. Most have very restricted ranges within the northern portion of the Californian Floristic Province, a well-known biodiversity hotspot. Here we describe Allocybaeina Bennett gen. nov. and its single included species, Allocybaeina littlewalteri Bennett spec. nov. This infrequently collected species is restricted to forested habitat in a small area of the coastal watersheds of southern Humboldt and western Mendocino Counties in northwestern California, U.S.A. In addition to descriptions we provide diagnoses, illustrations, a distribution map, and discuss conservation implications for this distinctive new genus and species. 


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