Identifyingpriorityareasfor

Rhododendron(杜鵑花)conservation

inChina

NawalShrestha&ZhihengWang

InstituteofEcologyandKeyLaboratoryforEarthProcesses

oftheMinistryofEducation

CollegeofUrbanandEnvironmentalSciences

PekingUniversity,Beijing100871,China

August15,2018

PriorityAreas

?Aneffectiveconservationbeginswitha

systematicidentificationofhighprioritysites

?Aprerequisiteforpreservingmaximum

biodiversityinagivenbiologicaldomain,istoidentifypriorityareasthatprotectevery

possiblespeciesatthelowestpossiblecost

?Thebestpriorityareasshouldbe

comprehensiveandrepresentativeandshouldprovideacost-effectiveconservationsolution

Prioritysettingapproaches

?Hotspot

–assignshighprioritytositeswithalargenumberofspeciesorwithlargenumbersofrare,

threatenedorendemicspecies

?Complementarity

–choosesareasofcomplementaryrichnessi.e.

areasthatincombinationhavethehighestspeciesrichness

PracticesinChina

?MostpreviousstudiesinChinahavechieflyreliedonthehotspotapproachtoidentifypriorityareasfor

conserving

–endemicwoodyseedplants

–endemicplants

–threatenedplants

–endemicgeneraandfamilyofplants

?Whethertheselectedpriorityareasadequatelyprotectthetaxonomicgroupofinterestandprovidethebest

optimalsolutionintermsofareaselectionandcost-efficiencyhasrarelybeenevaluated

GenusRhododendron(杜鵑花)

?Oneofthelargestfloweringplant

generawithca.1000speciesglobally

?Horticulturallysignificantgenusand

formsanimportantcomponentofthemontaneecosystem

?Representedbyabout571speciesin

Chinawithanexceptionalnumber(405)ofendemics

?MostChineseRhododendronspecies

areundergreaterthreatthanhasbeenacknowledged(Maetal.2014)

Rhododendronsetosum?NawalShrestha

Rhododendronarboreum?NawalShrestha

Objectives

?Evaluatetheperformanceofthetwopriority-settingmethods:hotspotsofrichness/rarityandcomplementarityapproach

?Usethemostefficientofthesemethodstoprioritizeareasofhighconservation

importance

?IdentifythegapsinprotectingChineseRhododendron

556species

402species

143species

177species

Fig1.DiversitypatternsofRhododendronspeciesinChinaestimatedin50x50kmgridcells.(a)Allspecies,(b)endemicspecies,(c)rarespeciesand(d)threatenedspecies.

Fig2.Hotspotareas(top1-10%speciesrichgridcells)ofRhododendrondiversityinChinaforfourspeciesgroups.(a)Allspecies,(b)endemic

species,(c)rarespeciesand(d)threatenedspecies.

Fig3.PriorityareasfortheconservationofRhododendroninChinaidentifiedbythecomplementaritymethod.(a)Allspecies,(b)endemicspecies,(c)rarespeciesand(d)threatenedspecies.Thesizeofthereddotsrepresentsspeciesrichness.

Table1Comparisonofefficiencyinidentifyingpriorityareasbetweenthehotspot

analysisandcomplementaryapproaches.Nisthenumberofrequiredgridcellstoprotectallthelistedspecies(conservationtarget)andTisthetotalnumberofgridcellswherespeciesoccur.Foreaseofcomparison,only10%hotspotapproachhasbeenshown.

EfficiencywascalculatedfollowingthemethodofPresseyandNicholls(1989).

Speciesgroups

Hotspot(10%)

Complementarity

N

T

Efficiency

N

T

Efficiency

Allspecies

1554

2399

0.35

61

2399

0.97

Endemicspecies

1179

1674

0.30

56

1674

0.97

Rarespecies

361

371

0.03

54

371

0.85

Threatenedspecies

610

1031

0.41

33

1031

0.97

Efficiency=1-(N/T)

Fig4.Species

accumulationcurvesas

functionsoftheincreaseinconservationareafor

RhododendronspeciesinChinaevaluatedbythe

twoalternativemethods:

hotspot(reddottedlines)andcomplementarity

(bluesolidlines).(a)Allspecies,(b)endemic

species,(c)rarespeciesand(d)threatened

species.

Fig5.Rangesizeof

includedandmissed

speciesby5%and10%

hotspotthresholdforfourspeciesgroupsof

RhododendroninChina.

Themeanrangesizeoftheincludedspecieswas

significantlylarger(***P<0.001)thanthatofthe

missedspecies.

Fig6.PriorityareasidentifiedbythecomplementarymethodforthesystematicconservationofRhododendroninChina.Complementarityalgorithmwasusedtoidentifypriorityareasbecauseofitshighefficiency.Thepriorityareaswereclassifiedintomoderatepriority,highpriorityandveryhighpriorityareasbasedonthenumberofoverlapsbetweentheprioritygridcellsforfour

speciesgroups.

PriorityareasforRhododendron

?Veryhighpriorityareas(12gridcells)

–BorderofsoutheastZhejiangandnortheastFujian,

southeastYunnan,northwestYunnan,southeastXizangandsouthSichuan

?Highpriorityareas(23gridcells)

–CentralandsouthwestSichuan,northeastYunnan,southGuizhou,northeastChongqing,andcontinuousmountainrangealongtheborderofsoutheastGuizhou,north

Guangxi,HunanandGuangdong

?Moderatepriorityareas(26gridcells)

–MountainousregionsofsoutheastXizang,centralSichuan,northeastYunnan,Guizhou,Chongqing,Guangxi,Hunan,GuangdongandJiangxi

Fig7.Overlapbetweenthepriorityareasselectedbythehotspot(bluecircles)andcomplementarity(greencircles)algorithmsforthefourspeciesgroupsofRhododendroninChina.Thesizesofpriorityareasarerepresentedbythenumberofgridcells(i.e.thenumberswithinthecircles)

Questionsraisedbyourstudy

?Arethetargetedgroupsadequately

representedbythedesignatedpriorityareas?

?Doesthechosenmethodoptimizethecostintermsofthenumberofsitesselected?

Conclusions

?Thecommonlyusedhotspotmethodselectsmoreareasbutprotectslessspecies

?Theexcludedspe