Species classification and identification is the basis of biodiversity monitoring, and is critical to deal with almost all ecological questions. In this paper, we aim to understand the current status and existing problems in plant species classification and identification using multi-source remote sensing data. We summarized the studies in this field since the year 2000, and found that most of these studies focus on temperate or boreal forests in Europe and North America, or African savanna. Airborne hyperspectral data is the most widely used remote sensing data source, and the LiDAR, as a supplementary data, significantly improves the classification accuracy through the information of single tree segmentation and three-dimensional vertical structure. Support vector machine and random forest are the most widely used non-parametric classification algorithms with an average classification accuracy of 80%. With the development of computer technology and machine learning, artificial neural network has developed rapidly in species identification. Based on the literature-based analysis, we propose that the current research in this field is still facing some challenges, including the complexity of classification objects, the effective integration of multi-source remote sensing data, the integration of plant phenology and texture characteristics, and the improvement in plant classification algorithm. The accuracy of plant classification and identification could be greatly improved by using the high-frequency data collection over time, the integration of hyperspectral and LiDAR data, the use of specific spectral information such as short-wave infrared imagery, and the development of novel deep learning techniques.

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is an important crop and is sensitive to climate change. Evaluating the impact of climate change on tea distribution and production is not only important for the global economy but also the livelihoods of farmers in many countries. Here we compiled data from 858 global occurrences of C. sinensis and six climatic variables, and used species distribution model (SDM) to predict the current potential distribution and possible range shifts in response to climate change in 2070 under Representative Concentration Pathway 2.6 and 8.5 (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). The results indicate that the current potential distribution of tea is mainly confined to Asia, Africa and South America, and distribution is limited by mean temperature of coldest quarter (MTCQ) and precipitation of warmest quarter (PWQ). Under future climate change scenarios, by 2070 suitable habitat for tea could significantly shrink at low latitudes, but expand at middle latitudes, leading to a northward shift of the distribution. However, the influence of future climate change on tea distribution differed across regions. The climatically suitable areas in Argentina, Myanmar, and Vietnam are projected to decrease by 57.8%-95.8%, whereas those in China and Japan are projected to increase by 2.7%-31.5%. Moreover, 68% of the new suitable habitat for tea cultivation under future climate change are predicted to lie within areas of natural vegetation cover. Therefore, the establishment of new tea gardens in these areas may lead to conflicts between tea cultivation and conservation of natural vegetation and biodiversity.

The 18 ^th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was held in Geneva, Switzerland from August 17 to 28, 2019. The Parties discussed 56 proposals for amendment of the Appendix of the Convention and 140 working documents, continuing the trend of the amendment of the Appendix in recent years. However, the trend of including more species in the Appendix slowed down at this Convention. The Parties clarified the annotations, application, interpretation and implementation of the Appendix, established new regulatory resolutions and adopted the CITES Strategic Vision post-2020. At the meeting, China established a positive image as a responsible country that attaches importance to the construction of ecological civilization, and all five proposals for amendments of the CITES Appendix proposed or jointly proposed by China have been adopted by the Parties.

Earth is experiencing its sixth mass extinction, and in response to the severity of accelerated biodiversity loss, the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, including Aichi Biodiversity Targets. However, the IPBES global assessment showed that most of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020 will possibly be missed, because of which the IPBES called for transformative changes in nature conservation in its global assessment report. China has made significant progress in biodiversity conservation, put forward with completed eco-civilization system, try to develop a protected area system, stress the importance of biodiversity conservation by inspection and “Green Shield” action. In addition, up to 18% of territory has been designated as protected area. However, biodiversity is still declining at an accelerated rate, more species are threatened. Although a series of reforms to eco-civilization has started the transformative changes, such as mainstreaming biodiversity in central government, managing all the protected areas in one department, emphasizing the importance of biodiversity in national spatial planning and China Ecological Conservation Red Line (ECRL) designation, systematic strategies and actions are still in need for biodiversity conservation. It is important to further implement “mainstreaming” at different levels, establish a systematic legal system and effective conservation mechanism, guarantee enough funds, clarify the status of biodiversity in production and living space, and make ecosystem service possible to become economic benefits. Therefore, it is necessary for China to achieve transformative changes in terms of conservation awareness, spatial planning, and conservation actions by promoting balanced economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress. It is possible to mainstream conservation awareness, coordinate between conservation and utilization, and promote citizen-based conservation actions if China combines the forces of law, governance, market, technology, and society. This approach world form an efficient and integrated mechanism to achieve the ideal state of biodiversity conservation, “living in harmony with nature”.

Microbes are ubiquitous in human life. In years past, the study of microbes has only focused on single-bacteria cultures and qualitative analyses. The development of sequencing technology has greatly enhanced progress in microbiology research and more and more evidence shows that human symbiotic microbes, especially intestinal microbes, are closely related to human health. Second-generation sequencing technology is currently mainstream in microbiology research because of its high throughput, high accuracy and low cost. However, with the deepening complexity of research, the disadvantages of second-generation technology, i.e. short read length (< 450 bp), lead to subsequent challenges in data analysis and genome assembly, and limit the applicability to future research. In this context, the third-generation sequencing technology comes into being. The third-generation of sequencing (TGS) technology is also called single molecule sequencing. It directly carries out real-time sequencing of single DNA molecules without PCR amplifications. TGS technology significantly increases read length up to 2-10 kb or even 2.2 Mb. Because of its advantages of long read and no preference for GC, TGS provides a new method for full-length gene sequencing that facilitates the assembly of complete and reliable genome maps in microbes and that further reveals the diversity of microbial structures and functions. This review summarizes the technical characteristics and principles of TGS, and then mainly analyzes its applications and progress in 16S/18S rRNA gene sequencing, complete bacterial genome mapping and metagenomics research.

DNA barcoding has been growing exponentially in terms of the number of barcode generated as well as its applications, e.g. as conservation tools in: species identification for damaged specimens, diet analysis from gut content and feces, biodiversity assessment from environmental DNA (eDNA), bulk arthropod samples or invertebrate-derived DNA (iDNA). These applications often require coupling with high throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies, and when done so are referred to as metabarcoding. Here, we discuss the methods used to generate reference barcodes using cost-efficient HTS platforms, and introduce several rules-of-thumb and some widely-used tools to conduct data quality control, denoising, and Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) clustering. We hope this review will help readers better understand how these emerging technologies can be implemented alongside existing technologies to accelerate biodiversity assessments in an accurate and efficient way.

China’s key protected species lists include the List of State Key Protected Wild Animals (LSKPWA), the List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Ecological, Scientific and Social Values, and the lists of local key protected wild animals. After the amendment and implementation of the Wild Animal Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China in 2017, the revision of the LSKPWA is on the agenda. In order to revise the list of the state key protected species, the relationship between these lists should be delineated to reflect the priority of protection and to facilitate administration and to divide the responsibility of protection between the central and local governments. It is recommended to determine the level of key protected wildlife species according to their attributes of endangerment, endemism, rareness, preciousness and management requirement. By adopting the Principle of Clump Listing, related species or the higher taxa such as a whole genus even a whole family should be included in the lists of protected species as far as possible. It is also practical to list a subspecies or a population as a management unit on the species protection list. In addition, to reflect the new provisions of the amended Wild Animal Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, it is necessary to distinguish domesticated and wild populations, those populations which have been artificially successfully bred with mature technology and stable production traits should be exempted from the listing. Thus, using the Principle of Splitting Listing to solve the real problems in conservation. In addition, taxonomic changes should be closely tracked and species list should be updated in time. It is also necessary to formulate criteria for protection levels, to develop guidelines for species recovery plan after their listing and to design amendment procedure for the list. It is important to formulate populations and habitats recovery plan for each key protected species. Through periodic evaluation of the listed species, the listed species are upgraded, downgraded, deleted or maintain its status for the needs of dynamic management of rare and endangered wild animals.

Functionally diverse root-associated fungi may differentially interact with host plants, potentially affecting the assembly processes of belowground plant and fungi communities. Here, we applied the Illumina Miseq sequencing technique to identify root-associated fungi of plants which were co-dominant in a tropical montane rain forest on Hainan Island, China. Structural features of bipartite networks were compared among the whole root-associated, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungus-plant interactions. A total of 297,831 fungal ITS1 sequences were obtained from eight families including Aceraceae, Annonaceae, Apocynaceae, Aquifoliaceae, Arecaceae, Fagaceae, Lauraceae, and Oleaceae. Fungal sequences were assigned to 1,279 OTUs comprised of Ascomycota (748 OTUs), Basidiomycota (354), Glomeromycota (80), and unidentified fungi (97). At least three functional groups of fungi i.e. putatively ECM (40 OTUs, represented 23.4% of the total fungal reads), AM (40, 13.9%) and saprophyte (83, 19.8%) were prevalent in the core root-associated fungal community (420 OTUs) of the tropical montane rain forest. Network analysis indicated that AM, ECM and root-associated fungus-plant interaction network showed structural features which cannot be predicate by null models assuming species interact randomly. Community level indices behaved differently among different ecotypes of fungus-plant interactions. Specifically, the degree of nestedness (NODF) and connectance were higher, while specialization was lower in the AM interaction network than the expected values from null models. In contrast, the ECM interaction network had a significantly higher degree of specialization and lower nestedness and connectance than the null models. At guild levels, plant niche overlap of AM and ECM interactions are higher and lower than the null model, respectively. Niche breadth of ECM fungi was narrower than that of AM fungi. Co-occurrence patterns of plant and fungus further confirmed competition for resources was intense in ECM interaction network (high C-score of both plants and fungi) and weak in the AM interaction network (low C-score). These findings suggest that at least two modes of interspecific interactions are critical for the assembly and coexistence of root-associated fungal communities, i.e. redundancy (nestedness) of AM interactions, and niche differentiation (specialization) of ECM interactions. Here we provide a comprehensive exploration of the interactions among functionally diverse root-associated fungal guild within a forest, which is key to understand the mechanisms maintaining species coexistence in tropical forests.

The Lancang-Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia, and is one of the richest areas of freshwater biodiversity in the world. Because it is an international river through six countries and holds extremely high fish biodiversity, there is a lack of systematic understanding of freshwater fish diversity. Over the past two decades, this team systematically compiled a list of freshwater fish species in 32 sub-basins or tributaries in the upper and middle reaches of the Lancang-Mekong River. Now in this paper, the species composition and distribution of fish have been analyzed, and the species diversity of the upper and middle reaches of the Lancang-Mekong River has been evaluated using the taxonomic diversity index. The results showed that 745 species of freshwater fish were recorded in the middle and upper reaches of the Lancang-Mekong River. These fish belong to 229 genera, 63 families, 17 orders and 2 classes. Of these, 451 species of Cypriniformes fish accounted for 60.5% of the species. The taxonomic diversity index showed that, from the source to the middle reaches of the river, the taxonomic distribution of freshwater fish became increasingly more even, the relationships were increasingly further apart, and the fish diversity gradually increased. Cluster analysis (CA) and multi-dimensional scaling analysis (MDS) results showed that the 32 sub-basins could be divided into three groups (Jaccard similarity coefficient=8.69), and the analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) indicated that the composition of freshwater fish differed significantly between the groups (R = 0.877, P = 0.001). Similarity percentage analysis (SIMPER) results indicated that Cypriniformes and Siluriformes were the main fish that differed among the three groups, and the species composition of groups presented distinctive changes at the family and species levels with the altitude rising. With the rapid population growth and economic development of the countries in the river basin in recent decades, the fish diversity and fishery resources of the Lancang-Mekong River face serious threats. Thus, it is urgent that countries in the river basin cooperate and formulate a scientific protection plan at the basin scale.

Biological invasion is a major threat to multiple ecosystems across the globe, causing severe damages to ecological integrity, loss of biodiversity, economic and social development and even human health. With the rapid development in aquaculture, shipping and aquarium and ornamental trades in the past several decades, China has become one of the countries most influenced by invasive species. Studies have clearly shown that the development and application of robust early monitoring and warning is one of the most effective ways to prevent and possibly control invasive species in aquatic ecosystems. Compared to terrestrial ecosystems, there remain several technical difficulties for developing early monitoring and warning in aquatic habitats. The technical challenges are mainly due to several features of aquatic biological communities such as high biodiversity and complex structure, a large number of microscopic species, extremely low population density and lack of available taxonomic keys for species identification. With the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing techniques, environmental DNA (eDNA)-metabarcoding has become the top priority method for developing the early monitoring and warning programs in aquatic ecosystems. In this review, we aim to synthesize the research progress on eDNA-metabarcoding and its application to early monitoring and warning of invasive species in aquatic ecosystems. In addition, we briefly discuss the technological advantages of eDNA-metabarcoding for the early monitoring and warning programs. Finally, we propose research perspectives for solutions to technical issues for false positive and false negative errors in the eDNA-metabarcoding process.

The construction of natural protected area system is a biodiversity conservation strategy which has been highly emphasized by international communities. In recent years, China expresses its concerns about the overlapping and intersection of natural protected area and proposed Guidance on Establishing a Natural Protected Area System Dominated by National Parks. To implement the proposed strategy, it is important to conduct a systematic study on the relationship and spatial distribution of the natural protected areas. This study collected data from 8,572 natural protected areas in different categories and administrative levels, including coordinates, types of ecosystems, administrative regions and boundaries. Among them, 1,532 natural protected areas with spatial overlapping and cross-jurisdictions were selected. Geographic concentration index (G) was calculated, and ArcGIS software was adopted for Kernel density estimation. Finally, the spatial distribution patterns, overlap of protected areas in ecological and geographic zones, ecosystem types, agencies with crossing jurisdiction and province locations were obtained. The results showed that: (1) Natural protected areas were concentrated in mountainous areas in central Shandong, Taihang Mountain, Dabie Mountain, Tianmu-Huaiyu Mountain and Wanjiang region, across multiple wetlands and forest ecosystems (Mean > 6, Max > 8). Among 10 pilot national parks, only Giant panda, Nanshan and Qianjiangyuan were located in areas with high density of overlapping; (2) The former State Administration of Forestry and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development had the largest number of sites under cross-jurisdiction among all the former agencies; (3) The number of overlapping natural protected areas in Heilongjiang, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Hunan provinces are significantly higher than other provinces. The overlap between Shanxi-Hebei-Henan and Anhui-Hubei-Jiangxi provinces is higher, and there is moderate overlap in other provinces. The areas studied above could become key priority areas for reassembling and optimizing China’s protected area system. Based on overlap hot zones, priority zones for biodiversity conservation, and cultural ecosystem services, this paper proposes a framework for reassembling and optimizing overlapped protected areas. According to 3 new protected area categories including national parks, nature reserves and natural parks, suggestions are given prioritizing reassembling and associating the area with a new category, which would provide a reference scheme to the urgent needs of ongoing reform of China’s natural protected areas system.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the most important international convention committed to the protection of biodiversity. It is also the most significant platform for China to participate and lead in the construction of a global ecological civilization. As an important entity for enterprises engaging in biodiversity conservation, the CBD has been strengthening efforts to build a consistent international system over the last two decades. The international system consists of two main pillars: (1) Global Partnership on Business and Biodiversity (GPBB mechanism), and (2) Global Platform for Business & Biodiversity (GPBB platform). The GPBB mechanism provides the organization and financial arrangement, while the GPBB platform mainly provides technical and intellectual support. These two pillars complement and provide synergies to one other. By looking into the formation background, development process, current situation and future trends of the GPBB platform, this paper systematically summarizes various resources that have been intentionally made available by the GPBB platform gradually over a long period of time. It also puts forward relevant policy recommendations for China in how to better participate in, contribute to and benefit from the CBD. Since COP-3 in 1996, related concepts, methodologies, and mechanisms have been continuously built up and made publicly available through an online database of the current GPBB platform through the official website of the Convention. These resources can be used by governments and enterprises of all countries, and China should increase its application of the resources available. Based on our research, we came to the following conclusions: (1) Willingness of enterprises to participate in biodiversity conservation and the demand for the GPBB platforms is growing; (2) CBD’s requirements for enterprise participation are explicit; (3) Roadmap on how to promote business engagement in biodiversity protection is straightforward; (4) GPBB mechanism allowing national governments to become members has already been established; and (5) GPBB platform as resource bank has been greatly substantiated. Looking forward to the future, the development of GPBB platforms is expected to continue maintaining the following three momentums: (1) GPBB platform will be continuously improved; (2) The impact will be further strengthened; and (3) More significant sectors will be highlighted. The GPBB platform has provided opportunities for enterprises to implement a range of CBD projects and promoted up-to-date information dissemination on latest research findings, methodology, technical tools, voluntary standards, guidelines, briefings and business best practices. It has also supported inputs and contributions from GPBB members of national governments, corporations, NGOs, academic researchers and other institutional stakeholders. China formally joined the GPBB in 2015 and carried out an in-depth study on GPBB and membership countries. A national initiative of China Business & Biodiversity Partnership (CBBP) is in progress, however in general, there is still much work to do. The paper makes the following suggestions: (1) China should introduce new draft resolutions to further strengthen the international system in COP-15 based on improved policy research; (2) China should be active in and gradually lead the GPBB development; (3) Capacity building in human resources is needed to make the CBBP stand out in the GPBB; and (4) Draw on the GPBB platform to better benefit from and contribute to it.

Forest gaps are an important disturbance in forest communities and impact the composition of understory species. The research on the relationship between the spatial patterns of forest canopy gap and diversity indices of understory plants is of great significance to understand the impcat between forest canopy gap and the biodiversity of understory plants. This will help to further understand community dynamics and also protect species diversity. In this study, three tropical rainforests with a size of one hectare were randomly selected in the Xishuangbanna tropical rain forest. A light and small six-rotor UAs was mounted with a Sony ILCE-A7r visible light sensor to obtain high-definition digital images of each plot. Digital surface elevation models and the topographic data of each plot were used to determine the distribution type of canopy gaps in each plot and to extract landscape pattern indices. Based on ground-based survey data, a statistical survey of plant diversity under each forest canopy gap was carried out to analyze the relationship between the spatial distribution of forest gaps and plant diversity. Results show that the tropical rain forest gaps in Xishuangbanna are large and have a scattered spatial distribution. The spatial characteristics indices, such as the shape and complexity index, and the area were significantly positively correlated with the diversity of understory plants. The size of the forest canopy gap had a more significant impact on the plant diversity than the shape. After the area reaches a certain level, the shape and complexity index of the gap is relative to the area factor. The impact on diversity of understory plants is more severe, and all forest gaps tend to recover from the top communities in their respective plots.

Understanding key species and their roles and impacts within communities plays a vital role in protecting key species within communities. Species relationship indicators, i.e., betweenness centrality (BC), closeness centrality (CC), and degree centrality (DC) measured food web connectivity among a community of 49 species. Once indicators were calculated, a clustering analysis analyzed species influences on connectivity robustness among different species classes. In addition to clustering analysis, node removal was tested to measure connectivity robustness under removal modes. Based off of clustering results, species were divided into three food web classes: (1) Class I species have relatively higher BC, CC, and DC values. (2) Class II species have relatively lower BC, CC, and DC values while (3) Class III species are intermediate between Class I and Class II species. In our analyses, it appeared that Class I species are more important for food web processes and are therefore considered key species, contributing to our understanding of how to quantify key food web species. Besides, the connectivity robustness decreased along with the increase in removed nodes under the ascending order removal mode. In the descending order and random removal modes, the connectivity robustness slightly increased after a continuous decrease along with the increase in removed nodes. It indicates that removal modes significantly affect the connectivity robustness. Moreover, under the three removal methods, the significant change in the connectivity robustness corresponds to almost the same number of removed nodes. It suggests key species play an essential role in maintaining the connectivity robustness of the food web.

Community structure plays a fundamental role in forest ecosystems as one of the basic mechanisms underlying community assembly. Community structure includes both horizontal and vertical structure. We stratified the vertical structure of a lower subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest at Dinghushan in Guangdong Province, China by surveying each individual with DBH ≥ 1 cm via a canopy crane, and then explored α diversity within each layer, as well as β diversity between layers. We found that: (1) The vertical structure of the forest was stratified into five layers; from bottom to top, the shrub, sub-canopy, lower canopy, middle canopy, and upper canopy correspond to the traditionally defined vertical levels of a forest community. (2) Layer α diversity decreased with height, and the Pielou evenness index was largest in the lower canopy. (3) The β diversity of layers relative to the shrub layer increased with height. Using the POD framework, the differences between layer community compositions were mainly attributed to differences in species richness. However, the lower canopy showed increased species replacement and decreased richness difference relative to the middle canopy layer when compared with other neighbouring layers. (4) Air temperature, light intensity and relative humidity increased with layer height, and the most dramatic change in light occurred in the middle canopy. These microenvironmental features may play an important role in the formation of vertical hierarchy in the forest, with light intensity as the largest factor.

Populus yunnanensis is an endemic tree species to Southwestern China. It is a typical southern Populus species that is fast-growing species with easy to clone propagules and is highly adaptable. It is important to research the genetic diversity and population structure of P. yunnanensis for the collection, preservation and utilization of the germplasm resources. In this study, 64 individuals were collected from six populations, spaning the main distribution areas of P. yunnanensis, including Zhaotong (ZT), Huize (HZ), Songming (SM), Eryuan (EY), Lashihai (LS) and Sichuan Meigu (MG). A total of 34 pairs of SSR primers and three pairs of cpDNA primers were used to determine out the genetic diversity and genetic structure. A total of 154 alleles were detected by SSR primers in P. yunnanensis. The average number of alleles was 4.529. The observed heterozygosity (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He) were 0.552 and 0.472, respectively. And the average genetic differentiation coefficient (Fst) was 0.238. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.421 and the gene flow (Nm) was 0.806. The results of the DAPC, PCoA and UPGMA analyses showed that the six populations can be divided into three sub-categories: Group І included ZT, HZ and four individuals of SM. Group II included EY, LS and the six remaining individuals of SM; and group III included MG; SM population include mixed genetic components from І and ІІ. A total of 35 variable sites were detected in the three cpDNA combinations, forming 13 haplotypes. Among them, haplotype H5 was the most widely distributed in the population, while the remaining ones were of private haplotypes. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that genetic variation within the population was greater than between populations. The study clarifies that P. yunnanensis has geographical distribution characteristics and is suited to in situ conservation. As ZT population has the highest geneticdiversity and contains seven chloroplast haplotypes, it should be given protection priority.

Large carnivores play an important role in the regulation of food-web structure and ecosystem functioning. However, large carnivores face serious threats that have caused declines in their populations and geographic ranges due to habitat loss and degradation, hunting, human disturbance and pathogen transmission. Conservation of large carnivore species richness and population size has become a pressing issue and an important research focus of conservation biology. The western Sichuan Plateau, located at the intersection of the mountains of southwest China and the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, is a global biodiversity hotspot and has high carnivore species richness. However, increasing human activities may exacerbate the destruction of local flora and fauna, thereby threatening the survival of wild carnivores. Information on species composition and dietary habits can improve our understanding of the structure and function of the ecosystem and food-web relationships in the study area. In addition, species composition and dietary habits are of great significance for understanding multi-species coexistence mechanisms and preserving biodiversity. This study collected carnivore fecal samples from Xinlong and Shiqu counties in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. DNA was then extracted from the samples and the species was identified based on DNA sequences and DNA barcoding techniques. Seven carnivores were identified, including five large carnivores (Canis lupus, Ursus arctos, Panthera pardus, P. uncia and Canis lupus familiaris) and two medium and small-sized carnivores (Prionailurus bengalensis and Vulpes vulpes). Using fecal DNA, high-throughput sequencing and metabarcoding, we conducted diet analysis for the seven carnivores and found 28 different food molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs), including 19 mammals, eight birds and one fish species. The predominant prey categories of wolves, dogs and brown bears were ungulates. The domestic yak (Bos grunniens) was the most frequently identified prey species. Small mammals such as rodents and lagomorphs accounted for a significant proportion in the diets of leopard cats and red foxes, The most frequent prey of this category of carnivore were the Chinese scrub vole (Neodon irene) and plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae). In addition, leopards and snow leopards mainly fed on the Chinese goral (Naemorhedus griseus) and blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), respectively. Our study highlights the utility of fecal DNA and metabarcoding technique in fast carnivore surveys and high-throughput diet analysis, and provides a technical reference and guidance for future biodiversity surveys and food-web studies.

Occupancy models have the advantage of accounting for imperfect detection, they have simple and flexible data requirements as we all high economic efficiency. For these reasons, occupancy models have been increasingly applied in wildlife research. In this paper, we introduced the basic principles and use of the occupancy models. Using camera trap data we outlined the operational procedures and considerations from field investigation to data analysis. Using the masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) in the Guangdong Chebaling National Nature Reserve as an example we demonstrate the basic steps of how estimate occupancy and detect probability. Finally, according to occupancy model research from recent years, we summarize use trends and main limitations in the research.

Pollinator bees are providers of an important ecosystem service, and their survival relies completely on the landscape. Now with the landscape dominated by agriculture, bee diversity has been significantly reduced. Studies suggest that bee populations decline as agricultural land-use increases due to increased exposure to detrimental pesticides. Further, the protein content of pollen is highly important for the growth and development of a bee, and different landscapes provide distinct sources of nutrition. Although many studies have demonstrated the apparent impacts of landscape change on the population dynamics and individual survival of the bees, the underpinning mechanisms remain largely unknown. On the other hand, an increasing body of literature has shown that bee gut symbionts are of great importance to the health of the host bees in absorbing nutrients and resisting pathogens. When foraging, pollinator bees are exposed to particular microbes from pollen and nectar which have been suggested to be a source of some bee gut symbionts and could be either probiotics or pathogens. Together with landscape-related nutrition and pesticides, environmental microbes have been reported to affect bee microbiomes significantly. A number of pilot studies suggest that landscape change could affect bee microbiota, thereby influencing host health. An important linkage, however, is missing between environmental microbiota, especially those associated with the flowers, and that of the bee gut in a changing habitat. It is worth exploring how gut microbiomes respond to landscape changes. This will hopefully help us identify landscape types that are friendly to bees, so proper land-use can be implemented to protect the bees.

The Tibetan sacred nature sites (SNS) encompass culturally significant, ritually protected sites in the Baima National Nature Reserve. Animistic and Tibetan Buddhist custodians of these sites have used traditional knowledge to conserve these sites for generations. Here, we assess how the Tibetan traditional eco-conservation culture conserves biodiversity, promotes community-based conservation, and restores forest ecosystems using methods of applied ethnobotany and ethnoecology. In particular, we applied strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analyses and community participatory approaches in three Tibetan SNS: Bazhu, Kegong, and Zhuida in Baima National Nature Reserve and its surrounding area in Shangrila County of Deqin Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province.Our results show that the driving force for community conservation of biodiversity comes from the established, traditional cultures and the dependence of community livelihoods on biodiversity. We conclude that community conservation on Sacred Nature Sites is an important way to protect biological and cultural diversity, as well as livelihood development at the community level. The Tibetan community's long-term compliance with, and practice of, SNS conservation has been a significant contribution to biodiversity conservation throughout the region.

LiDAR (light detection and ranging), a fairly new active remote sensing technology, is being widely used in the field of animal ecology by more and more scholars due to the recent development where forest parameters can be extracted and inverted from LiDAR. In this paper, we review the advances in forest parameter extraction from LiDAR and its many applications in studying wildlife habitat. We also analyze current research on forest parameter inversion algorithms based on LiDAR, mainly in forestry research, though we lack quantitative parameters related to the ecological significance of animals. Because few studies have applied LiDAR technology to animal ecology research in China, we consider foreign research in this field in three categories: (1) The relationship between species habitat selection and three-dimensional forest structure; (2) Three-dimensional habitat mapping; (3) Biodiversity assessment and species distribution model prediction. Compared with traditional methods, the high-precision three-dimensional structure information provided by LiDAR can significantly improve the efficacy of monitoring animal habitat quality and biodiversity and the modelling accuracy of species distribution models. These advancements contribute to deeper understanding of species habitat selection and the clustering process mechanism. However, the studies that utilize LiDAR to date have mainly focused on previously known ecological relationships, especially the relationship between canopy structure and species diversity. These studies fail to account for either forest understory habitat quality or biodiversity monitoring and evaluation. In short, the relationship between wildlife and its three-dimensional habitat needs to be further explored through analysis of LiDAR data. Future studies should focus on extracting three-dimensional structures of forest understories to improve the efficacy of monitoring habitat quality and biodiversity in the understory, and to provide standard quantitative indicators for the evaluation of animal ecology.

Based on historical accounts and the latest research on the taxonomy and phylogeny of amphibians, we provide an updated species list of the diversity and distribution of amphibian and reptile species in the Anhui Province, China. As of 30 November 2018, we recorded 44 amphibian species, representing 2 orders, 9 families and 26 genera, and 72 reptile species, representing 3 orders, 11 families and 48 genera in Anhui. Among these, 3 amphibian species and 1 reptile species are endemic to Anhui. When compared to amphibian and reptile species records in The Amphibian and Reptilian Fauna of Anhui, our census added 12 species, excluded 1 species, and renamed 29 species in this revised species list. According to the animal geographical regions of China, 91 species belong to the Oriental Realm, 10 species are classified in the Palaearctic Realm, and the remaining species are considered widespread. Four recorded species are listed in the National Key Protected Wild Animal List, and 112 species are ranked in the Red List of China’s Vertebrates.

Aspergillus flavus is commonly regarded as a kind of saprophytic fungi with a wide distribution. It is the major aflatoxin B (AFB) and cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) producing species, as well as a pathogen to humans and animals. In the world, huge amounts of corns, peanuts and cotton seeds are vulnerable to be contaminated by A. flavus and aflatoxin each year. There is much variance in morphological, genetic and toxin-producing characters among isolates of A. flavus, resulting in its ambiguous population structure. In this paper, we analyzed 88 isolates of A. flavus from different environments of 26 provinces (including the Greater and Lesser Khinggan Mountains) in China, as well as nine ex-types and authentic strains based on CaM and benA sequences to infer their sequence types (STs) using multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), and their phylogenetic relationships and population structures employing MEGA 6.0 and Structure 2.3.4 softwares, together with their toxin-producing features (AFB and CPA). Our results showed that the 88 Chinese isolates and nine ex-type and authentic strains were distributed in three populations, i.e. A. flavus population I, A. flavus population II and population A. oryzae. There were 17 STs among the 97 isolates, among which the 88 strains from China were distributed in 15 STs. All isolates of population A. oryzae did not produce AFB, but most isolates of the A. flavus populations I and II produced AFB and CPA. The toxin-producing features were strain-specific, but not correlated to sequence types or populations. Some correlations between toxin-producing characters and geographical environments or crop types were recognized. The isolates of A. flavus populations I and II from the northeast areas planting corns, the arid northwest planting cottons and the south areas growing peanuts all produced AFB and CPA. The isolates from Hoh Xil of Qinghai and Aba of Sichuan did not produce AFB, though with the production of CPA. The isolates of A. oryzae population without AFB production were almost from North China with diverse climates and geographical environments, where the traditional Chinese soybean paste is made in the rural areas.

The ecological conservation redline centers on protecting the integrity and continuity of the ecosystem and the consistency of ecosystem service functions. Overall, the policy is committed to protecting the country’s ecological security. Re-instating the ecological conservation redline should assist in targeting the restoration of damaged ecosystem, in the context of both natural and social restoration. The ecological conservation redline has characteristics of the vulnerability, sensitivity, complexity and extreme destructibility of ecosystems. It has problems such as the irreplaceable space, high governance costs, and chaotic governance responsibility on the path of establishing legalization of repairing mechanism. According to the base rule of legalization, a core system should be established through clarifying the principle of prevention as the main guide, establishing special funds for repair, and determining the responsibility of repairing the subject as the responsibility guarantee, to achieve the environmental goal of protecting and restoring key ecosystem and developing ecological corridors and biodiversity protection networks.

Aristolochia (s. l.) is widely distributed in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of the world, with monochlamydeous and tubular flowers, gynostemia, inferior ovaries, axile placentations, pluriovulate capsules, and others as the main characters. It is the largest genus in Aristolochiaceae, which consists of about 600 species. According to Flora of China, there are 45 species in China, 33 of which are endemic. In recent years, many new species have been discovered in China, especially in Yunnan and Guangxi. Additionally, some taxa were confirmed, reinstated, republished and revised. Isotrema, previously treated as a subgenus of Aristolochia, was recently reinstated as an independent genus based on molecular and morphological evidences. This genus has strongly curved calyxes, 3-lobed gynostemia with paired anthers on the outer surface of each gynostemium segment, and basipetally dehiscent capsules. Through extensive field work, careful examination of many specimens, digital photos and related literatures, an updated checklist and identification key of Aristolochia (s. s.) and Isotrema in China are presented here. Relevant discussions and distribution for the 17 species of Aristolochia, 58 species and one subspecies of Isotrema are also provided. Among them, I. mollis and I. neolongifolia are reinstated and illustrated, the relationship among A. gentilis, A. chuandianensis and A. gracillima, and the relationship between I. kunmingense and A. bonatii are discussed, knotty taxa, such as I. ovatifolium complex, I. cucurbitoides complex, I. griffithii complex, I. versicolor complex, I. dabieshanensis complex and suspected species I. saccata, are also discussed.

To maximize species conservation outcomes and effectively allocate limited resources, the first step in conservation planning is to define conservation priority areas and migration pathways between them. Based on field survey and high-resolution satellite data, we used species distribution models, conservation planning tools and connectivity analysis tools to define the core habitat area and potential corridors for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in the Sanjiangyuan Region. With potential threats identified, we proposed differentiated conservation strategies for different parts of the Sanjiangyuan Region: (1) In the western region, snow leopard core habitats are mostly small and fragmented but with widespread migration pathways and no obvious bottlenecks. However, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a potential barrier for snow leopard populations in the western region and needs further investigation. (2) The central region contains the largest core habitat which also has highest centrality in the connectivity analysis. To maintain the function of these source populations, we recommend long-term monitoring, anti-poaching patrol and supervision on development projects for this region. (3) For the eastern region, which has the highest human density, it is important to safeguard two core habitats (Anemaqen and Nanpo Yutze) and maintain the narrow corridors in between them. The provincial highway in Gande County may be a potential barrier for snow leopard migration and deserves further monitoring. As the epicenter for snow leopard conservation in China, the habitat quality in the Sanjiangyuan Region remains good overall. The goal of snow leopard landscape conservation in Sanjiangyuan should be to maintain core source populations while keeping migration routes unblocked. Integrated space-ground monitoring approaches should be implemented in the future for assessments and early warning signs of habitat degradation for these important protected species, especially in non-protected areas in core habitat at risk for development.

As the apex predator of plateau ecosystems in Central Asia and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) plays an essential role in maintaining food-web structure and ecosystem stability. Learning the diet composition and dynamics of the snow leopard is important for understanding its role in ecosystem functioning and interspecific interactions. Previous diet analyses of the snow leopard have been based mainly on morphological identification of food debris in the feces, though the accuracy of this practice has been broadly debated. The Qionglai Mountains are located at the southeast edge of the snow leopard range, harboring a small and relatively isolated population of snow leopards that are barely studied. Using non-invasive sampling, we collected 38 putative snow leopard fecal samples in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in the Qionglai Mountains. To identify the fecal origin, we extracted the fecal DNA and amplified the mitochondrial DNA 16S rRNA gene fragment. Twenty-two fecal samples were identified as originating from snow leopards. Subsequently, vertebrate universal primers and a snow leopard-specific blocking oligo were used to amplify the food components in the fecal DNA, and then high-throughput sequencing was performed to analyze the diet composition of snow leopards. The blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) was detected in 67% of the samples and was found to be the main staple food of snow leopards’ diet. The domestic yak (Bos grunniens) appeared in 33% of the fecal samples, also accounting for a high proportion of the snow leopard diet. In addition, pikas (Ochotona spp.) and birds were found in a small number of fecal samples. Therefore, wild prey was found to be the main food source for snow leopards in Wolong. However, livestock (yak) also accounted for a relatively large proportion of their diet.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) refers to DNA fragments that organisms leave behind in their surrounding environment (such as soil, sediment and water). eDNA technology sequences these DNA fragments and can provide information on taxonomic composition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Compared with traditional biological survey methods, eDNA technology is more sensitive, efficient and noninvasive. As a novel method for surveying aquatic organisms, eDNA techniques have been widely used in biodiversity assessments of aquatic organisms, including monitoring of endangered, rare and invasive species. In this review, we summarize recent developments in eDNA technology and focus primarily on the operational procedure and its application for freshwater benthic macroinvertebrate analyses. Finally, we discuss the advantages and potential caveats of current eDNA practices.

The deciduous broad-leaved forests in the warm temperate-subtropical transition zone of the Qinling Mountains are well preserved. The forests lie in the transition zone from warm temperate to subtropical forests and have a relatively complex community structure. Few studies have been conducted to investigate community structure based on a large-sized plot in this transitional region. This study analyzed species composition and community characteristics within a 25 ha plot, serving as the baseline information for monitoring long-term forest dynamics and diversity in the future. Based on the field protocol of the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) and the Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network (CForBio), a 25 ha deciduous broad-leaved forest plot was established in the temperate-subtropical transition zone. All free standing trees with diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 1 cm were tagged, measured and identified to species. A total of 47,739 woody individuals with DBH ≥ 1 cm belonging to 119 species, 66 genera and 36 families were identified. The families and genera of temperate floristic elements accounted for 41.18% and 60.00%, respectively and were the dominant flora in this plot. Fifty-one rare species accounted for 42.86% of the total individuals. Deciduous trees species were dominant accounting for 89.07% of the total species. The 20 species with importance values ≥ 1 contributed 70.35% and 57.41% to the total number of individuals and the total basal area, respectively. The three most abundant species were Quercus aliena var. acutiserrata in the canopy layer, Sorbus alnifolia in the sub-tree layer, and Quercus spinosa in the shrub layer. The mean DBH of all individuals in the plot was 8.61 cm, and the overall structure of DBH size class of all individuals generally shows an inverse “J” type which indicated successful regeneration. All the dominant species exhibited large-scale aggregated spatial distribution closely related to habitat preferences except for Populus purdomii.

Species are not static, but in the process of continuous differentiation and evolution. In this context, reproductive isolation is considered the key to most speciation events. However, species that may be only partially reproductively isolated may disturb our understanding of a species, as stated by ‘The integrative species concept’. In the Flora of China, Chinese Sphaeropteris contains two species, S. brunoniana and S. lepifera. S. brunoniana is thought to be the same species as a Hainan native, S. hainanensis, however, S. hainanensis seems to have differentiated morphologically. This study further explores the genetic relationship between S. brunoniana and its related species by collecting 21 samples from 9 populations for GBS reduced-representation genome sequencing for phylogenetic analysis. Using both genetic and morphological data, our results indicate that S. hainanensis differs genetically from S. brunoniana, but is also morphologically distinct based on leaf characteristics and spore ornamentation. Although the reproductive isolation of the two populations is weak, hybrids are formed in the coastal areas of Guangxi and leaves mimic intermediate morphology between parents. Therefore, our results suggest that S. hainanensis is in the process of speciation due to geographic isolation and suggests to restore its species status. S. brunoniana × hainanensis which the sample from Guangxi should be considered an independent natural hybrid taxon.

Fabaceae (= Leguminosae) is the third largest plant family after Asteraceae and Orchidaceae. It contains ca. 791 genera and 19,325-19,560 species. Many taxa possess great economic and ecological significance. Since the publication of Flora Republicae Popularis Sinicae in 1998, molecular systematics has continued to develop, and thus the classification categories of many genera have changed tremendously. In this paper, we summarize recent research results from both home and abroad (including 32 treatments and 4 newly recorded genera), compare these new changes with the treatment of legume genera in Flora Republicae Popularis Sinicae and provide a reference for future taxonomic research into native Chinese legumes.

Hainan Island is a key biodiversity hotspot in China with a unique ecosystem and climate. In order to explore the species diversity of Chiroptera on the island, 15 bat surveys were carried out in the area between 2002 and 2016. During these surveys, mist nets, harp traps and other tools were deployed. Captured specimens were identified according to their external form, skull features and phylogenetic description. In total, 1,025 specimens from 5 families, 15 genera and 31 species were recorded and collected. On December 21, 2016, two small Murina bats were captured in a harp-trap in a forest at Chaocan Village, Qiongzhong City, Hainan Province. Based on external, cranio-dental characteristics and phylogenetic evidence, the bats were identified as Murina eleryi. This is the first record of the species on Hainan Island. Based from our survey result and literature review, Chiroptera of Hainan Island consists of a total of 8 families 20 genera and 41 species. The potential distribution area of bats on Hainan Island was mapped using a maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model incorporating 363 local records, derived from our records and the literature. High diversity was predicted for Wuzhi Mountain, Diaoluo Mountain, Yinggeling, Jianfengling and Huoshankou National Geopark whereas the low diversity was predicted for Sanya, Chengmai, Tunchang, Lingao, Qionghai areas. Overall, baseline data for Chiroptera distribution, and resource status was assessed by the current study, which is useful for disease prevention, control, resource conservation and management on Hainan Island.

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is widely distributed across remote and difficult-to-traverse terrains. Thus, the main obstacle to snow leopard research is the lack of baseline data. Here, we retrieved all articles published in either Chinese or English that studied snow leopards in China from 1980 to 2018, and from these we identified 35 papers that reported on the distribution or density of snow leopards in their results sections. Eighteen of these included a density estimation. Additionally, we obtained unpublished snow leopard density survey data from 28 different areas. On this basis, we assessed the status of snow leopard surveys and data-deficient areas in each province. We found that the two areas most lacking data for the snow leopard distribution surveys exist in the West Tianshan Mountains bordering Kyrgyzstan and the Gangdisi-Nyenchenthanglha Mountains and the Himalayas in southern Tibet. Relative to the total area of ​​China’s snow leopard habitat, density surveys still only cover a small fraction of their habitat (1.7%), so these aggregation efforts are far from complete. Finally, because existing density surveys tend to explore relatively good snow leopard habitats, we must continue to expand survey efforts, especially across data-deficient areas.

Lycophyte and fern genetic research has accumulated over recent years due to sequencing technology advancement, making nuclear, plastid, and mitochondrial genomes accessible. While early plastid genome research focused on reporting genome structures and sequence characteristics, our current understanding spans comprehensively over structural evolution and phylogenomic analyses. These studies provide us with important insight for understanding the early evolution of vascular plants. Although lycophyte and fern plastid genomes are relatively well understood, this paper summarizes the current understanding of lycophyte and fern plastid genome structure and its variation. Such variation includes large inversions, boundary shifts of repeat regions, gene and intron loss, and some of which could be recognized as synapomorphies of higher taxonomic ranks. We also review RNA editing and long noncoding sequence inserts in plastid genomes, which are prevalent in lycophytes and ferns. However, the origin, mechanism and function of such remain unclear. We also comment on the application, merit and future of plastid phylogenomics.

The Vegetation Map of the People’s Republic of China (1:1,000,000) is the most important dataset for vegetation studies in China. However, some vegetation formations were not included in the Vegetation Map of China due to limitations of data and mapping techniques in the last century. In order to update the dataset, we collected data of vegetation formations and their distributions from the literature (1950-present). Based on the phytocoenology-ecology principle, formations with the same dominant species were classified as the same formation. Compared to formations in the Vegetation Map of the People’s Republic of China (1:1,000,000), we added 1,475 new vegetation formations of forests and scrubs.

Research on traditional knowledge has become increasingly more popular for biodiversity conservation research, as it has a great impact on a wide range of fields such as biological resource management, ecosystem services, community sustainable development and more. In order to understand how research on traditional knowledge is changing, this paper uses Web of Science (WoS) and applies WoS’s statistical analysis function and visualization analysis software CiteSpace III to search for key co-occurrence analysis, emergent word analysis, literature co-citation analysis, and other methods to understand research hotspots and evolution of traditional knowledge research systematically. The number of research papers on traditional knowledge research is increasing yearly. Research institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research and the University of California system have shown strong scientific research strength; Africa, Brazil, Bolivia and India are hotspots for traditional knowledge research. We found that Albuquerque UP, Singh R and Xue DY have published a substantial quantity of academic papers in this field. Additionally, papers published by Berkes F, Drew JA, Gómez-Baggethun E and other scholars have laid a solid foundation for this field and the promotion of related research. Studies on traditional knowledge related to biological resource management, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and policy management represent important directions in this field in the future.

Camera-trapping allows scientists to gain new insights into the protection status and threats toward biodiversity. Mammals and birds in Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve were monitored using 40 camera traps in 2 independent plots based on grid sampling survey method. A total of 3,199 independent images (out of 14,119 recognizable images) were collected with an extensive survey effort of 14,808 camera-days during April 2017 to December 2018. 61 species within 9 orders and 22 families were recorded and identified, including 26 mammal species belonging to 4 orders and 12 families, and 35 avian species belonging to 5 orders and 10 families. Among the recorded species, Rhinopithecus brelichi and Syrmaticus ellioti are listed as Class I National Protected Wildlife in China. Worth noting, Rhinopithecus brelichi is listed as Endangered (EN) in the IUCN Red List, 9 species listed as Class II, 5 species as Vulnerable (VU), and 8 species as Near Threatened (NT). The relative abundance index (RAI) is widely used to assess the regional species abundance. The five most abundant mammal species with highest RAIs in Fanjingshan Naitonal Nature Reserve were Macaca thibetana (RAI = 28.23), Elaphodus cephalophus (RAI = 15.46), Sus scrofa (RAI = 11.82), Muntiacus reevesi (RAI = 9.05) and Rhinopithecus brelichi (RAI = 7.70). Additionally, the five most abundant avian species with highest RAIs were Myophonus insularis (RAI = 10.33), Tragopan temminckii (RAI = 9.59), Chrysolophus pictus (RAI = 6.96), Syrmaticus ellioti (RAI = 3.71) and Pucrasia macrolopha (RAI = 1.55). During the study, intensive livestock (RAI = 11.14) and human (RAI = 12.90) activities were recorded, which may elucidate the potential threat to the protection of wildlife and their habitat. We recommended that the Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve Administration Bureau should take more actions in improving the public awareness to protect wildlife, and in promoting the harmonious development of the reserve and local communities.