Assessing in-situ conservation status of threatened medicinal vascular plants in central China

Abstract

It is of great significance to carry out scientific investigation of threatened species and assess their in-situ conservation status in order to guide the conservation and management of these species within a region. In this study, we explored and assessed the biodiversity and in-situ conservation status of the threatened medicinal vascular plants(TMVPs) in central China. The results showed that there were 276 TMVPs in central China, including 18 critically endangered(CR), 77 endangered(EN), and 181 vulnerable(VU) species. Of which, 222 TMVPs were distributed in 49 national nature reserves, with an in-situ conservation rate of 80.43%. And the in-situ conservation rate of CR, EN and NR species were 83.33%, 77.92% and 81.22%, respectively. The complementary algorithm was used to select the nine national nature reserves with the highest protection and complementary contribution to the TMVPs. The cumulative protection contribution rate of these nine nature reserves was 81.98%. Fifty-four TMVPs were distributed outside of national nature reserves, while mainly distributed within 10 hotspot counties including Badong county, Hubei province, Sangzhi county, Hunan province, Jianghua Yao Autonomous county, Hunan province and so on. In general, TMVPs are well protected by the national nature reserves in central China. However, there are still some conservation gaps. It is necessary to carry out further field investigation on the species with conservation gaps and identify the gap areas, so as to provide scientific guidance for the optimization of the conservation of TMVPs in this region.