Overexploitation, habitat destruction, human-driven climate change and disease spread are resulting in the extinction of innumerable species, with amphibians being hit harder than most other groups [1]. Few species of amphibians are widespread, and those that are often represent complexes of multiple cryptic species. This is especially true for range-restricted salamanders [2]. Here, we used the widespread and critically endangered Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) to show how genetically uninformed management efforts can negatively affect species conservation. We find that this salamander consists of at least five species-level lineages. However, the extensive recent translocation of individuals between farms, where the vast majority of extant salamanders now live, has resulted in genetic homogenization. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes from northern China now predominate in farms. Unfortunately, hybrid offspring are being released back into the wild under well-intentioned, but misguided, conservation management. Our findings emphasize the necessity of genetic assessments for seemingly well-known, widespread species in conservation initiatives. Species serve as the primary unit for protection and management in conservation actions [3], so determining the taxonomic status of threatened species is a major concern, especially for amphibians. The level of threat to amphibians may be underestimated, and existing conservation strategies may be inadvertently harmful if conducted without genetic assessment.
Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations is the main driver of global warming due to fossil fuel combustion. Satellite observations provide continuous global CO2 retrieval products, that reveal the nonuniform distributions of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. However, climate simulation studies are almost based on a globally uniform mean or latitudinally resolved CO2 concentrations assumption. In this study, we reconstructed the historical global monthly distributions of atmospheric CO2 concentrations with 1° resolution from 1850 to 2013 which are based on the historical monthly and latitudinally resolved CO2 concentrations accounting longitudinal features retrieved from fossil-fuel CO2 emissions from Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. And the spatial distributions of nonuniform CO2 under Shared Socio-economic Pathways and Representative Concentration Pathways scenarios were generated based on the spatial, seasonal and interannual scales of the current CO2 concentrations from 2015 to 2150. Including the heterogenous CO2 distributions could enhance the realism of global climate modeling, to better anticipate the potential socio-economic implications, adaptation practices, and mitigation of climate change.
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