Seed plant features, distribution patterns, diversity hotspots, and conservation gaps in Xinjiang, China

Jihong Huang,Keping Ma,Xinghui Lu,Yi Ding,Canran Liu,Ruoyun Yu,Zhongjun Guo,Jiping Wang,Runguo Zang

doi:10.3897/natureconservation.27.23728

Abstract

The flora in Xinjiang is unique. Decisions about biodiversity conservation and management based on seed plant diversity hotspots and conservation gaps in Xinjiang are essential to maintain this unique flora. Based on a species distribution dataset of seed plants, we measured seed plant diversity using species richness and phylogenetic diversity indices. Five percent of Xinjiang’s total land area with the highest biodiversity was used to identify hotspots for each index. In total, eight hotspots were identified. Most hotspots were located in mountainous areas, mainly in the Tianshan Mountains and Altai Mountains. Furthermore, we detected conservation gaps for Xinjiang’s seed flora hotspots by overlaying nature reserve maps on to maps of identified hotspots and we designated priority conservation gaps for hotspots by overlaying global biodiversity hotspot maps on to hotspot conservation gaps maps. Most of Xinjiang’s seed plant hotspots are poorly protected; only 10.45% of these hotspots were covered by nature reserves. We suggest that it is essential to promote network function of nature reserves within these hotspots in Xinjiang to conserve this unique flora.

Highlights

Biodiversity is unevenly distributed; prioritisation is essential to minimise biodiversity loss (Brooks et al 2006)
In this paper, based on native seed plant species in Xinjiang, we identified seed plant hotspots using both species richness and phylogenetic diversity indices
Xinjiang seed plants distribution and similarity at the regional level Species richness at the regional scale generally increased with decreasing latitude in Xinjiang

Summary

Introduction

Biodiversity is unevenly distributed; prioritisation is essential to minimise biodiversity loss (Brooks et al 2006). Biodiversity hotspots are characterised by exceptional concentrations of endemic species that experience relatively high rates of habitat loss (Myers et al 2000; Prendergast et al 1999). This approach to defining hotspots has been used in many studies (Mittermeier et al 2005). In addition to the amount of endemic species and habitat loss, other aspects, including total number of species, number of threatened species and evolutionary history, have been proposed to identify hotspots (Cadotte et al 2010; Forest et al 2007; Rosauer and Laffan 2008). Phylogenetic diversity is often favoured because it shows relationships between extant species and provides more information about evolution over a long time-scale (Omland et al 2008)

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Results

Conclusion