Biodiversity in China's mountains

Abstract

China, one of the world's “megabiodiversity countries”, is home to more than 30 000 vascular plant and 6300 vertebrate species. Over thousands of years, however, cultivation has led to the disappearance of many of these species from the plains and lowland areas. The mountain regions still harbor large numbers of species, because there have been fewer human and natural disturbances and there are more diverse habitats. We used county level species distribution databases to explore patterns of biodiversity and to identify biodiversity hotspots within China. Ten hotspot ecoregions were identified, containing 3110 plant genera (92.0% of the country's total), 220 (90.5%) endemic plant genera, 366 (94.3%) endangered plants, and 254 (72.2%) endangered vertebrates, 427 (91.0%) terrestrial mammal species, and 65 (85.5%) endemic mammals. All 10 hotspot ecoregions are located in the mountainous areas of China. Although high richness of overall, endangered, and endemic plants and animals co-occurred in many of the same hotspot ecoregions, they often occurred in different counties within these ecoregions and showed low spatial congruence. In conclusion, China's mountain regions are critical for protecting biodiversity and should be made conservation priorities in the future.