Abstract
Cistanche deserticola Ma is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant exclusively parasitizing on the roots of Haloxylon ammodendron (C. A. Mey.) Bunge and H. Persicum Bunge ex Boiss and the primary cultivated crop of the desert economy. Its wild resources became scarce due to over-exploitation and poaching for economic benefits. To protect the biological diversity of the desert Haloxylon–Cistanche community forest, the optimal combination of desert ecology and economy industry, and their future survival, this paper examines the conservation areas of wild C. deserticola from the perspective of hosts’ effects and climate changes. To identify conservation areas, the potential distributions generated by MaxEnt in two strategies (AH: abiotic and hosts factors; HO: hosts factors only) compare the model’s performance, the niche range overlap, and the changing trend in climate changes. The results show the following: (1) The HO strategy is more suitable for prediction and identifying the core conservation areas in hosts and climate changes (indirectly affected by host distributions) for C. deserticola. (2) The low-suitable habitat and the medium-suitable habitat are both sensitive to the climate changes; the reduction reaches 48.2% (SSP585, 2081–2100) and 26.6%(SSP370, 2081–2100), respectively. The highly suitable habitat is always in growth, with growth reaching 27.3% (SSP585, 2081–2100). (3) Core conservation areas and agriculture and education areas are 317,315.118 km2 and 319,489.874 km2, respectively. This study developed a predictive model for Maxent under climate change scenarios by limiting host and abiotic factors and inverted the natural habitat of C. deserticola to provide scientific zoning for biodiversity conservation in desert Haloxylon–Cistanche community forests systems, providing an effective reference for decision makers.
Highlights
The medium-suitable habitat (MSH) is a total of 133,722.574 km2, and is concentrated in the periphery of highly suitable habitat (HSH), such as the upstream of Irtysh River, northern Gurbentunggut desert, and northern foothills of Karakoram Range
We have found that HSH has maintained a growth trend in all of the HO strategies
Our study focuses on the influence of host factors on the distribution of parasitic plants under different strategies (AH and HO)
Summary
The desert ecology and economy industry (DEEI), in the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and targeted poverty reduction policy, is receiving more and more attention [1,2,3]. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, located in north-western China, is becoming the largest potential gainer because of its unique locational and climatic advantages, including China’s largest and second-largest deserts, the Taklimakan desert and the Gurbantunggut desert, respectively [4,5,6]. The trickiest challenge of DEEI is from itself and the stress of ecology and economy [7,8]. Less frequently than evaporation, water shortage, soil desertification, and poor economic development are hard-to-reach peaks facing the local people and government [9,10,11].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
