Influence of environmental factors on habitat of <em>Jasminum subtriplinerve</em> in Central Vietnam

Abstract

Jasminum subtriplinerve, a rare and valuable medicinal plant, is facing the problem of habitat loss. This study was conducted to determine the influences of environmental factors on the distribution and identify habitat suitability areas for this species in Central Vietnam. Based on the 19 bioclimatic, 10 soil properties, 3 topographic variables and 86 observed locations, we used Correlation Analysis processing, follow by the Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) algorithm was applied to predict the spatial potential distribution of J. subtriplinerve. Using the MaxEnt model for analyzing the J. subtriplinerve distribution showed a good performance (AUC testing = 0.821 and AUC training = 0.887). The most influential factors on J. subtriplinerve distribution were Altitude (49.2%), Mean diurnal range (10.6%), Isothermality (6.9%), Bulk density (5.2%), Normalized difference vegetation index (4.7%) and Proportion of sand particles (4.6%). In addition, the model showed that very high and high potential habitat areas of J. subtriplinerve occupied 3.17% (658.88 km2) and 8.95% (1,858.56 km2) of the studied site, distributed in the midland and low mountainous areas, the most suitable Altitude ranged from 8.1 to 138.7 m. Meanwhile, 15.17%, 18.10% and 54.60% of the studied site were nominated as moderate (3,148.93 km2) low (3,758.10 km2), and very low (11,334.17 km2) potential habitat areas, respectively. This study comprehensively evaluated factors affecting habitat suitability, therefore, these results provide an understanding of the bioecological distribution of J. subtriplinerve guiding the identification of optimal areas for cultivation and conservation.