Optimizing the distribution pattern of species under climate change: the protection and management of Phellodendron amurense in China

Abstract

ObjectivePhellodendron amurense, a special species in Northeast Asia, is the source of the wild medicinal Phellodendri Amurensis Cortex, the second-level key protection in China. Because of its dual value of medicine and timber, it has been cut in large quantities, resulting in a sharp decline in wild resources. It has been listed as a national first-class rare tree species. Here, we aim to plan protection area and wild tending area for Chinese P. amurense in the context of climate change.MethodIn this study, based on the Biomod2 model, the main environmental factors affecting the distribution and the potentially suitable areas of the current and future were investigated. Furthermore, the correlation between the main environmental factors and the chemical components was determined by full subset regression. Habitat quality and landscape pattern change were determined by InVEST and Fragstats software based on the land use data in 1980, 2000, and 2020. Then, Zonation software was used to plan the priority protection and wild tending areas.ResultsThe results showed that in the future, the potential habitat of P. amurense will gradually move to the high latitude and high altitude areas in the northwest direction, and the high suitability area will decrease sharply. Since 1980, the habitat quality of P. amurense habitat has gradually deteriorated, and the fragmentation has gradually intensified. In the future, the central part of the Greater Khingan Mountains and the forest area of the Lesser Khingan Mountains will be the long-term stable sanctuary. Fengcheng City and Tonghua County are the most suitable for the wild tending areas.ConclusionThe existing nature reserve only contains 6.01% of the priority protection area, so we propose to expand the area to cover a larger proportion of the sanctuary and implement management and restoration plans to increase the suitability and connectivity. These results can support the protection action and provide a reference and scientific basis for further research, rational development, and utilization of P. amurense.

Impacts of Climate Change on the Biogeography and Ecological Structure of Zelkova schneideriana Hand.-Mazz. in China

“…in northeastern China have revealed instances of habitat fragmentation within regional plant habitats. As landscapes progressively transition towards human-dominated land use, the spatial cohesion of plant habitats may continue to diminish [ 17 , 45 ].…”

Stability in change: building a stable ecological security pattern in Northeast China under climate and land use changes

“…Due to its complex vertical structure, forest vegetation has a strong ability of soil and water conservation 55 , 56 . However, there is evidence that with the worsening of global climate change, the temperate broad-leaves forest in NC has a tendency to gradually migrate to the boreal coniferous forest in Northwest China 57 – 59 . During this process, forest vegetation in some areas may experience reduced overall vegetation cover due to unsuitable climate and species migration.…”

Distribution and protection of Thesium chinense Turcz. under climate and land use change

“…By using the core area zonation algorithm in ZONATION4.0 software ( https://www.helsinki.fi/ ), the layers of the high suitable areas in different climate scenarios in the grass stability region were superimposed. Each layer was assigned a weight of 1, while other parameters were set to default values 46 , 47 . The natural discontinuity method was used to classify the output layers from 0 to 1, and the wild tending areas with low, medium, and high suitability of T. chinense were obtained.…”