Spatial phylogenetics of the native woody plant species in Hainan, China

Abstract

To better identify biodiversity hotspots for conservation on Hainan Island, a tropical island in southern China, we assessed spatial variation in phylogenetic diversity and species richness using 18,976 georeferenced specimen records and a newly reconstructed molecular phylogeny of 957 native woody plants. Within this framework, we delineated bioregions based on vegetation composition and mapped areas of neoendemism and paleoendemism to identify areas of priority for conservation. Our results reveal that the southwest of Hainan is the most important hot spot for endemism and plant diversity followed by the southeast area. The distribution of endemic species showed a scattered, rather than clustered, pattern on the island. Based on phylogenetic range‐weighted turnover metrics, we delineated three major vegetational zones in Hainan. These largely correspond to natural secondary growth and managed forests (e.g., rubber and timber forests) in central Hainan, old‐growth forests and natural secondary growth forest at the margins of Hainan, and nature reserves on the island (e.g., Jianfeng and Diaoluo National Nature Reserves). Our study helps to elucidate potential botanical conservation priorities for Hainan within an evolutionary, phylogenetic framework.

Integration of hotspot identification, gap analysis, and niche modeling supports the conservation of Chinese threatened higher plants

“…Other than the establishment of nature reserves, national parks should also be put on the agenda, especially for regions with contiguous hotspot grid cells but small and fragmentary nature reserves, such as the Hengduan Mountains (hotspots 3 and 8), the Sino‐Vietnamese border (hotspot 14), Taiwan, and Hainan (hotspots 12 and 15). The high biodiversity in these regions is drastically impacted by intensive human activities, such as overgrazing, construction of infrastructure, urbanization, and tourism development (Zomer et al, 2015; Zhang et al, 2021; Zhu et al, 2021). How to balance the conservation of biodiversity with the development of the economy is a major challenge for the long‐term conservation of threatened plants in China.…”

Spatial phylogenetics

“…The first large‐scale spatial phylogenetic analyses began to appear in 2014, initially focused on Australia because herbarium digitization reached a critical mass there first (González‐Orozco et al, 2015, 2016; Mishler et al, 2014; Nagalingum et al, 2015; Schmidt‐Lebuhn et al, 2015; Thornhill et al, 2016). Later studies expanded around the world to New Zealand (Heenan et al, 2017), California (Thornhill et al, 2017), Chile (Scherson et al, 2017), the Pacific Northwest (Link‐Pérez & Laffan, 2018), Mexico (Sosa et al, 2018), Wisconsin (Spalink et al, 2018), Florida (Allen et al, 2019), conifers of the world (Mekala et al, 2019), Norway (Mienna et al, 2020), Africa (Dagallier et al, 2020), Mediterranean Europe (Cheikh Albassatneh et al, 2021), Italy (Bartoli et al, 2021), Greece (Kougioumoutzis et al, 2020, 2021), all of North America (Carter et al, 2022; Mishler et al, 2020), China (Zhang et al, 2021, 2022; Zhu et al, 2021) and Japan (Nitta et al, 2022).…”

Crown Structure Metrics to Generalize Aboveground Biomass Estimation Model Using Airborne Laser Scanning Data in National Park of Hainan Tropical Rainforest, China

“…Hainan Island is rich in rainfall, rivers, and hydrological resources. Therefore, monitoring and recording an inventory of aboveground biomass of the island is beneficial to sustaining biodiversity, forest management, forest resources development, and the tourism industry [19,20]. The study area covers about 4900 km 2 , which is one-seventh of the area of Hainan Island.…”