Non-native plant invasion imposes great threats to global diversity and ecological safety, and now is a hot-spot of ecological studies. Understanding the reproductive strategies of invasive plants could provide insights into the invasion mechanisms and be helpful for proposing prevention and control strategies. Non-native invasive plants generally possess following reproductive traits: hermaphrodite-dominated sexual system, autonomous selfing-dominated breeding system, even asexual reproduction and apomixis, and high proportion of resources allocated to sexual reproduction, which may facilitate the success of some invasive plants. In turn, non-native plants could alter native plant-pollinator interactions, and in most cases decrease pollinator visitation and fitness of native plants. In addition, non-native plants may act as environmental stresses triggering rapid adaptation and evolution in reproductive strategies and phenotypes of resident native species in receipt communities. Studies in this field mostly have focused on rapid adaptation of invasive species to their new environments, while how native and non-native plants co-adapt and diverge remains largely unexplored, in particular from the perspective of plant reproduction. A better understanding of competition and cooperation between native and non-native plants will shed lights on rapid responses of native plants to non-native plant invasions. Such community studies of interspecific interactions with or without a competitor could provide evidence for displacement of reproductive traits and species coexistence, and improve our ability to predict and manage non-native invasive plants.

Bumblebees are important pollinators of many wild flowers and crops and play a significant role in maintaining natural and agricultural ecosystems. The varied geomorphology and vegetation of China makes it the greatest hotspot of bumblebee diversity in the world. However, the bumblebee fauna of China has been insufficiently studied. Here, we report the results of systematic field surveys and the application of bumblebees to pollination over the last two decades in China. The results showed the following: (1) More than 50,000 bumblebee specimens were collected during 2002-2017. The taxonomic status of some difficult taxa was revealed by integrating morphology with DNA barcoding. A total of 125 bumblebee species have been identified, which represents 50% of the total number of bumblebee species worldwide. (2) We report the first compiled list of the bumblebee species of China, which includes 22 species that are endemic to China. The transitional zone from the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to the Loess Plateau, the Qinling Mountains, and the Sichuan Basin is the centre of bumblebee diversity worldwide. (3) Six native bumblebee species, including Bombus lucorum, B. patagiatus, B. ignitus, B. pyrosoma, B. picipes and B. lantschouensis from Northern China, were selected for rearing between 1998-2017. Furthermore, B. patagiatus and B. lantschouensis, which had traits that favoured domestication, are now used as pollinators of crops in greenhouses within China. We propose a multi-pronged strategy to conserve the native bumblebees of China, which includes protecting their habitats and food resources and controlling invasive alien species and pesticide use. We hope that this study will help inform the conservation and the sustainable use of wild pollinators across the globe, but especially bumblebees of China.

Insect pollinators play a vital role in plant sexual reproduction. Pollinators facilitate cross-pollination that in turn promotes genetic diversity, mediates plant speciation, and contributes to ecosystem stability. However, the abundance, diversity and health of wild pollinators are threatened by human activities such as anthropogenic climate impacts, habitat destruction and environmental pollutants, and the impact of these human activities on ecosystems is likely to increase. Despite recognizing the importance of wild pollinators and the implementation of targeted conservation programs, the contemporary threats of wild insect pollinators remain poorly understood. For the giant honey bee (Apis dorsata), an important wild pollinator and honey producer in tropical rainforests and agricultural areas across Asia, here we describe nest characteristics, colony migration and pollination role and review threats to their conservation. We found that A. dorsata nests featured a single honeycomb hanging from the branches of large trees. The bees undertook long distance migrations to locate seasonally ephemeral forage sources but regularly returned to previous nesting sites. We identified several anthropogenic activities that posed significant threats to A. dorsata conservation: harvesting entire colonies, deforestation, pesticide and herbicide utilization, parastioids, mites, pathogens and climate change. Based on our study, we recommend several conservation initiatives to promote wild A. dorsata populations, which include artificial domestication, developing ecological agriculture, establishing of ecological corridors, inspection and quarantine controls on domesticated colonies, and sustainable utilization of the floral resources used by A. dorsata. We hope that this review will stimulate future research on giant honey bees whilst playing a significant role in their conservation and sustainable utilization.

Sexual reproduction of seed plants depends largely on pollen transfer. The pollination service provided by pollinators for wild plants and managed crops is one of the most crucial ecological processes on our planet, as it plays an essential role in sustaining biodiversity and crop production. Factors such as agricultural intensification, habitat fragmentation, and global climate change have increased the risk of pollinator decline and extinction, which would have detrimental effects on ecological function and agricultural production. To maintain the stability of ecological interactions between plants and pollinators, a series of pollinator monitoring schemes have been established, ranging from the regional to international scale. Participants including volunteer citizens and professional scientists have obtained the status and trends of pollination systems, thereby helping to provide early alerts and feedbacks for the risk of natural and agricultural ecological systems. In this view examining the methodologies of pollinator monitoring, we emphasize that it is necessary to distinguish pollinators from floral visitors. A diversity of direct and indirect methods for monitoring pollinators is summarized for seven types of animals (including Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Aves, Mammalia, and Lacertilia, respectively). A simple monitoring program that includes volunteer participation is also recommended. Commonly used field monitoring strategies for seven groups of pollinators would be useful as references for monitoring additional pollinator faunas. The pros and cons of these diverse methods for protecting and monitoring pollinators are discussed, which is useful for the long-term detection of pollinator dynamics.

Tea is the most popular non-alcoholic beverage in the world. The domestication origin of cultivated tea plants has always been a focus of ecological research. This article summarizes the recent research progress, discusses remaining questions and makes suggestions for future research directions. Many wild relatives of cultivated tea plants are distributed in the Yangtze River Basin and its southern reaches, particularly in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces. The pronunciation of “cha” is similar in the languages of southern ethnic groups, implying a single domestication origin of cultivated tea plants, most likely from ancient Bashu or Yunnan. However, studies on genetic structure reveal that multiple centers occur in the domestication origin of cultivated tea plants. For example, cultivated Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze, including some varieties, may have multiple domestication events. According to research from historical text, the cultivation center of tea plants migrated from west to east and then to south, which is supported by changes in genetic diversity. However, the first cultivated tea plant might have arisen in the most eastern region of the Yangtze River Basin based on a recent archaeological finding. We speculate that during the spread of tea knowledge, cultivated varieties introgression occurred from wild relatives to cultivars, or new cultivated tea plants were directly domesticated from local wild tea plants, leading to the genetic complexity and the language consistency of cultivated tea plants. More evidence is needed to confirm the ancestral types, origin sites and time, and domestication processes of cultivated tea plants, and the integration anaylysis of multiple disciplines such as tea culture, population genetics, phylogeography, anthropology, climate change, and archaeology should be more encouraged.

China is characterized as one of the countries with the greatest diversity worldwide, mostly because of its vast area and heterogeneous topography. Meanwhile, the long history of human activity has led to the decrease of populations for considerable species in China. To protect these species, the Chinese government proposed a list of the first batch of Wild Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations (PSESP). In this study, we developed a fine-resolution distribution database for 120 PSESPs, explored the distribution patterns, and evaluated the in situ conservation status of the PSESPs by overlapping species distribution with terrestrial national and provincial nature reserves (NNRs and PNRs) in China. We found the greatest richness of PSESPs in the southeast regions of Yunnan, the southwest regions of Guangxi, and the southwest regions of Hainan Island. On average, NNRs covered 21.5%, while PNRs covered an additional 10.9% of the distribution areas of PSESPs. However, 35 PSESPs (29% of the total) were not covered by NNRs and 17 PSESPs (14%) were not covered by either NNRs or PNRs. We proposed that nature reserves specifically designed for the PSESPs need to be constructed in the Yunnan and Hainan provinces.

Camellia oleifera is the dominant woody oil crop in China. According to current records, the cultivation history of C. oleifera as an oil crop may be less than 1,000 years, and the Yangtze River Basin may be one of the earliest cultivation areas. Wild relatives of C. oleifera are valuable genetic resources for breeding. Camellia oleifera belongs to Sect. Oleifera of the genus Camellia in the family Theaceae. Wild relatives of C. oleifera may include species in Sect. Oleifera and Sect. Paracamellia. However, the division of Sect. Oleifera and Sect. Paracamellia is still under debate, and the phylogenetic relationships among species remain unresolved. Sect. Oleifera and Sect. Paracamellia have the highest frequency of polyploids in the genus Camellia, and the same species may have various ploidies, which may be promoted by artificial selection and interspecies hybridization. The Yangtze River Basin is the main production area of C. oleifera, and the main distribution area of wild C. oleifera, thus containing rich genetic resources of wild C. oleifera. This study analyzed the distribution of species in Sect. Oleifera and Sect. Paracamellia of the genus Camellia and compared the results with the potential distribution areas of wild C. oleifera. Results show that drainage divides between the Yangtze River Basin and Pearl River Basin (Nanling Mountain, Miaoling Mountain, and adjacent regions) have the highest diversity of species in Sect. Oleifera and Sect. Paracamellia. Meanwhile, these regions are also potential highly suitable growing regions for wild C. oleifera, where there may be potential interspecies hybrid zones between C. oleifera and its wild relative species. Species diversity decreases from the south to the north, likely representing the dispersal direction from south to north. The potential interspecies hybrid zones between C. oleifera and its wild relative species may contain rich genetic diversity and provide natural breeding stations for selective breeding. These regions should be priority areas for research and conservation in order to explore and utilize genetic resources with important economic values.

The agricultural civilization that originated in the Yangtze River Basin is an important part of Chinese civilization. Being one of the world-famous crop origin centers, the Yangtze River Basin is rich in biodiversity, and has bred many cultivated plants. This review has collected data of crops that originated in the Yangtze River Basin and information of plant remains found in Neolithic archaeological sites. By summarizing the environmental features and tracking the changes of vegetation since the Holocene in the Yangtze River Basin, we attempt to dissect the dynamics of plant use in this area and investigate the relationship between local cultivated plants and biodiversity. Our results indicate the agricultural civilization in the Yangtze River Basin greatly relied on rice production, and domesticated a large amount of fruit and aquatic vegetable crops, which reflects the adaptation and dependence to local subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests and wetlands. When compared to other basins, the Yangtze River Basin is advantageous in allocation of ecological factors, and the characteristic of domesticated crops shows a typical feature of subtropical humid forest vegetation areas. Studying the natural and human factors related to crop domestication can help us to better understand the origin of agriculture civilization in the Yangtze River Basin. This work not only provides a reference for the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources, but also plays a guiding role in promoting the construction of ecological civilization and sustainable development in the Yangtze River Basin.

Buckwheat is a pseudo-cereal with high nutritional and officinal value, a food crop outside of Poaceae. Cultivated buckwheat includes two species: sweet or common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), a self-incompatible, distylous annual and bitter or tartary buckwheat (F. tartaricum), a self-compatible, homostylous annual herb; the former depends on insect pollination for seed production. Thirty species have been named in the genus Fagopyrum (Polygonaceae) in the world. Investigations of morphology and genetic diversity suggest that Southwest China is the diversity center of Fagopyrum, especially in the area of Three Parallel Rivers, the upper Yangtze River Valley, where ancestral species of the two buckwheat crops were originated. Previous studies of basic biology on the buckwheat crops are briefly summarized here. Future studies of the taxonomical revision on the genus Fagopyrum, collections of wild germplasm resources, exploration of the interspecific relationships and the breeding of cultivars with superior agronomic traits are strongly needed. Palynological and archaeological evidences imply that the buckwheat crop has been cultivated at least 4,500 years in the Yangtze River Valley, and might have ever been a main food for local populations in the mountain areas, providing food resource for emerging of Yangtze River civilization. Deep understanding of the basic biology of buckwheat with modern techniques of genomics could clarify the origin of cultivated buckwheat and factors limiting seed production. The buckwheat could be a superior crop in the mountain areas if the traits with high agronomic and medicinal value can be excavated and exploited.

Since rapid human population growth, overconsumption of natural resources by human activities and climate change, loss and extinction of species is increasing, and biodiversity become an important global issue. Traditional ground-based biodiversity researches focus on the species or community, which can not provide necessary information for biodiversity conservation and assessment at a large scale. Since the advantages in spatial coverage and time series, remote sensing is very useful in large-scale biodiversity monitoring, mapping and assessment. According to the height of the platform, remote sensing platforms can be classified into satellite remote sensing, airborne remote sensing and near-surface remote sensing, which can obtain biodiversity information at different spatial scales. The purpose of this study is to review the recent advances of application of different remote sensing platforms for biodiversity research. We focus on the following aspects, such as observation methods, research scale, and analyze advantages and limitations of different remote sensing platforms. Finally, we summary the future application of remote sensing in biodiversity research. From the literature statistics result, we found that satellite platform were used more frequently in biodiversity research than other remote sensing platform. Due to the high flight cost, the biodiversity researches used airborne remote sensing was fewer than the researches used satellite. Near-surface remote sensing includes the UAV platform and the ground-based platform, which is an emerging remote sensing platform and hotspot in remote sensing of biodiversity. Compared to satellite and airborne remote sensing platforms, the near-surface remote sensing platform can directly observe the individuals and can directly obtain information from species or population. Although there are some limitations in these three platforms, we believe that remote sensing technology can better serve biodiversity conservation and assessment from different temporal and spatial scales with the development of remote sensing platforms and the improvement of sensors.

Human activities has increasingly threatened the biodiversity of the world. Biodiversity science is a discipline that depends on scale, and research questions are often affected by the ecological process of multi-temporal scales. The traditional survey methods of biodiversity are often limited by human and material resources. It is therefore urgent to integrate different data sources in the biodiversity sciences. The remote sensing technique has developed from optical remote sensing to the multi-source remote sensing including different platforms combined with various sensors, and further to integrate the hyperspectral and hyper spatial resolution and light detection and ranging (LiDAR). The large coverage, the accessibility to remote areas, and the long-term repeatability of the remote sensing technique provide new and better solutions for studying ecological and scientific issues at different temporal and spatial scales. In this paper, we review the opportunity and challenges in the application of remote sensing in biodiversity sciences and conservation practices. Specifically, we focus on the applications of remote sensing in the issues related to the population dynamics, species interaction and community diversity, functional traits and functional diversity and biodiversity management. We suggest that the satellite and airborne remotes that employed multi-band or hyperspectral, high spatial resolution and LiDAR provide biodiversity information from different scopes, and will play essential roles in the investigation of biodiversity in large-scale and remote areas. In the near future, species discrimination technique based on spectral characteristics and structure detection based on LiDAR will improve our understanding of the biodiversity sciences and management. We suggest to strengthen the communication between remote-sensing scientists and biodiversity researchers to promote the application of remote sensing technologies in biodiversity research and at different temporal and spatial scales.

Heteracia szovitsii (Asteraceae) is a common ephemeral annual species occurring only in desert regions of northern Xinjiang in China, with short-lived florets and achenes within a single infructescence (capitulum) having three different morphs. To explore the relationship between morphological differences in florets and the polymorphic fruits and reproductive characteristics, we compared floral traits, flowering pattern, and flower visitors to the three floral morphs in H. szovitsii, and reproductive efforts by hand pollination treatments. The results showed that: Peripheral and intermediate florets did not have pappus, while central florets did. Number of florets and length and width of ligules were significantly different among the three floral morphs in a single capitulum. Further, the length of stigma lobes of peripheral florets was significantly greater than that of central florets, the length of ovary beaks of central florets was significantly greater than that of peripheral and intermediate florets. Differences in morphology with or without pappus, width of ovaries, length of ovary beaks among three morphs of florets were consistent with those of three morphs of achenes. These results indicated that the numbers of three morphs of achenes and their morphology had differentiated during the development period of three kinds of florets. The concentrated flowering pattern of blooming in the morning of three kinds of florets within capitulum, made the capitulum act as functional units, i.e. like a flower, thereby increasing flower display and attracting pollinators. Pollinator visits may facilitate outcrossing during the short flower longevity. Pollen grains of the three floral morphs could germinate and produce pollen tubes on their stigma lobes, indicating that this species is self-compatible. The three kinds of florets bagged without emasculation all can produce achenes, but fruit-set was all significantly lower than that of natural pollination, suggesting that this species could be autogamous and cross-pollination could increase fruit set. Due to the protandrous and the pump/bush mechanism of secondary pollen presentation, pollen of three floral morphs was present at the apex of the stigma and on the brush of hairs of both the upper part of style and outside lateral of the closed stigma lobes. This character prolonged the duration of pollen presentation (male stage), and reduced the interference between male and female functions within flower, promoted cross pollination, thereby improving male/female fitness. Meanwhile, it could allow the pollen deposition on the lobes when the stigma lobes expanded to complete self-pollination autonomously. Halictus sexnotatulus was the most frequent floral visitor, and the duration time among insects visiting, inflorescence opening, highest pollen viability and the highest stigma receptivity had a high degree of synchronicity. This strategy facilitated the output of pollen at the male stage and receipt of pollen on the stigma at the female stage, thus ensuring that pollination was completed quickly and effectively in a short time after flowering and that outcrossing was successful. In the desert spring environment of the northern Xinjiang, H. szovitsii with short-lived florets can not only provide reproductive assurance via autonomous self-pollination quickly under the condition of the lack of pollinators and/or limited activity due to low temperatures and windy conditions, but also can provide the opportunities for outcrossing, through concentrated flowering, protandry and secondary pollen presentation when environmental conditions became favorable for pollinator activities.

Cultivated plants are the most important material basis for human survival and development. Growing global human population and personal demands result in increasing consumption of plant resources. The low genetic diversity of cultivated plants is a key factor that restricts production and quality improvements. Wild relatives of cultivated plants have accumulated rich genetic variations and adaptive traits during the process of long-term adaptive evolution, thus can be used as genetic donors in germplasm innovation and improvement of cultivated plants. However, the persistence and evolution of wild relative populations are threatened by habitat destruction and anthropogenic climate change. This review summarizes the progress of in situ and ex situ conservation of wild relatives of cultivated plants and offers conservation suggestions for wild relatives of cultivated plants based on the current situation in China. Moreover, technologies for the utilization of wild relatives of cultivated plants are reviewed and new insights on the sustainable use of genetic resources of wild crop relatives are also discussed. Finally, the status of conservation and utilization of the main cultivated plants that originated from the Yangtze River Basin are investigated, with four plants of different uses used as representatives.

The diversity and abundance of below-ground microorganisms and animals play an important role in shaping above-ground biodiversity and helps maintain ecosystem function. Yet, we have a limited understanding of belowground biodiversity, e.g. its spatial/temporal patterns, driving factors and responses to global change and human activities. This knowledge gap is particularly acute for the Tibetan alpine grassland that is sensitive to climate change and occupies 60% of the area of the Tibetan Plateau. Here, we first review recent studies that reported the drivers of patterns in five major soil organism groups, including fungi, bacteria, archaea, nematodes and arthropods on Tibetan alpine grassland. We then focus on the responses of soil biodiversity to climate change and human activities. Finally, we highlight some open questions for future research of soil diversity on the Tibetan alpine grassland. Specifically, we recommend that future studies examine (1) The mechanisms underlying distribution patterns of belowground biodiversity; (2) Links between aboveground and belowground biodiversity; (3) Effects of belowground biodiversity on the health and functioning of ecosystems; (4) Manipulative experiments of belowground biodiversity.

Pollinators serve key ecological functions, ensuring stable ecosystems and high agricultural yields. Hence, assessing ecosystem health and effects of agricultural management would benefit from understanding and monitoring pollination networks, which involves identifications of pollinators and pollinated plants. Classic approaches of morphology-based identification of plants and pollinators can be time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly, and require highly specialized taxonomic expertise. In comparison, DNA barcoding and high-throughput sequencing technologies can provide efficient and accurate identifications of plants and their pollinators, which may facilitate construction of pollination networks. Here we propose using sequencing technologies with a PCR-free genome-skimming work frame, using "super DNA barcode" as a new method to assess plant-pollinator networks. We expect this technique to improve resolution and accuracy of taxonomic identification to help gain quantitative information for bulk samples of pollinators or pollens. Although there are technical challenges to be resolved, the robustness of the new methodology has been validated in relevant biodiversity studies, suggesting promise in constructing pollination networks.

Floral longevity, the length of time that a flower remains open and functional, varies greatly among species. The high plasticity of floral longevity can reflect an adaptation to variable pollination environments. In the alpine meadows of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (2,900 m vs. 3,600 m), we assessed how potential floral longevity, the shortest floral longevity and the actual floral longevity of 11 species varied under treatments of different pollination contexts. We modeled the response of floral longevity to pollinator exclusion (potential floral longevity minus actual floral longevity) and supplemental pollination (actual longevity minus shortest longevity), and the plasticity of floral longevity (potential longevity minus shortest longevity) at high and low altitude habitats. We found that the plants at the high-altitude community had longer potential floral longevity compared to the low-altitude community, while the shortest floral longevity was not significantly different. Furthermore, pollinator exclusion significantly increased flower longevity, while supplemental pollination significantly decreased floral longevity (i.e. the potential floral longevity > the actual floral longevity > the shortest floral longevity) in both high and low-altitude habitats. In comparison with the low-altitude community, high-altitude plants exhibited higher plasticity of floral longevity. Overall, our results suggest that greater plasticity of floral longevity may increase the opportunity for pollination and thus aid fitness at higher altitudes where pollinators are scarce and unpredictable.

As a comprehensive and interdisciplinary platform on biodiversity assessments, it is foreseeable that the assessment reports and policy recommendations of Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will exert key effects on global biodiversity conservation. Based on the analysis of the pollinators protection policy formulation and implementation process in USA, this research gained the process and mode on establishment of the biological diversity related protection policy, scientific evaluation-government attention-the introduction of restrictive policies and measures. Considering the first thematic assessment report delivered in 2016 by IPBES, The Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production, we speculated that the deliverable may facilitate a restrictive policy on the new neonicotinoid pesticide industry and bee products trade, especially wild bee products. We further analyze possible impact of IPBES deliverables on biodiversity and related protection policy in the world and China, in terms of promoting scientific research and evaluation on biodiversity and ecosystem service, mainstreaming biodiversity conservation and bring it to be an important political issue and so on. In addition, our research will provide support for establishing adaptation policies for biodiversity conservation in China.

The Yangtze River Basin in China has abundant forest resources, including high species diversity, endemism, and genetic diversity. According to archaeological evidence, forest resources played a substantial role during the formation and development of Yangtze River Civilization in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Age. Food, energy, tools, architecture, and boats were all derived from forest resources. At present, the Yangtze River Basin and Pearl River Basin have become the domestic center of wood supply in China. Faced with insufficient timber supply and shortages of large diameter timber, responsible management of the Yangtze River Basin forest resources is crucial to guarantee domestic timber security in the future. Understanding the status of remaining resources and creating an improved preservation system are needed to effectively conserve forest germplasm resources in the Yangtze River Basin. A comprehensive investigation of forest germplasm resources and diversity analyses of important tree species and a preservation system that is composed of in situ, ex situ and vitro preservation is urgently needed.

Wildlife population is low and most of them are very sensitive to human disturbing, which makes traditional survey difficult. As known, infra-red camera technology has many advantages in wildlife study. However, with its wide application and increased data amount, researchers are facing some problems concerning infra-red camera monitoring and later data processing and analyzing. This paper describes in details three key problems on infra-red camera data management and use, such as lacking standardization, integration and normalization. The present paper also lists and analyzes eight aspects about photo data mining, based on researches carried out in the Qinling Mountains, Wolong Nature Reserve, etc. It involves individual recognition, temporal/spatial activity pattern, information-extracting of occasional species, behavior and reproduction, disease situation and interference by humans. If all this information can be used effectively, we hope to provide scientific support at some extent on wildlife and biodiversity conservation and management in future.

Most members of the Bunyavirales could infect humans and animals and thus pose great potential threat to public health. According to the 10^th Report on Virus Taxonomy released by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV, 2017), the taxonomy of Bunyaviruses has been updated. Based on the information of this report, we highlight the taxonomy of the new Bunyavirales and summarize the historical changes of ICTV classification of this virus, including classification, designation, typical species, genomic structures, encoding protein, major vectors and hosts, geographic distribution, and specific viral properties. In addition, based on the viral genome-encoded RdRp gene sequence, a phylogenetic analysis is performed for the all nine families and 13 genera as well as the representative species of Bunyavirales.

Identifying the mechanisms that drive community structure and dynamics is one of the most fundamental goals in ecology. The local neighborhood in which trees grow significantly influences species survival. In order to understand the mechanisms underlying the various survival responses to neighborhood crowding among species, we compared the survival responses of focal tree species through modeling tree survival in terms of neighborhood effects. These effects were quantified in different ways, based on the survival monitoring and functional trait data of 90 species commonly observed in a lower tropical evergreen broad-leaved forest 20-ha plot in the Dinghu Mountains. We found that among all species tested, 58% showed sensitivity to neighborhood effects and that the survival response of 50% were mediated by functional trait differences among co-occurring species. Shade tolerance of species is associated with species sensitivity to its neighborhood as species with lower shade tolerance are intended to be sensitive to their neighbors. Lower specific leaf area, higher leaf dry matter content, wood density and maximum diameter at breast height indicate higher shade tolerance. Niche difference associated with light acquisition strategies may underlie species coexistence at the neighborhood scale. Our study provides new insights into quantifying neighborhood interaction and species coexistence at the local neighborhood scale.

Clonal plants reproduce asexually via clonal growth and simultaneously reproduce sexually, and the consequences of clonal growth on pollination and mating have been one of the essential questions in ecology and evolution of plant reproduction. An increasing number of studies report the effects of clonal size, architecture, genetic diversity, and floral deployments on pollinator visit and behavior. The most common view is that clonal growth produces large floral displays and therefore increases attraction to pollinators. Consequently, clonal growth may help to maximize male reproductive success by dispersing more pollen. On the other hand, geitonogamy, pollination among flowers within one individual plant, is an inevitable byproduct with an increase in clone size. More frequent geitonogamous pollination has been expected in clonal plants with large floral displays and leads to a reduction in female fitness because of inbreeding depression or pollen clogging. However, some recent theoretical and empirical studies suggest new ideas on this issue. First, the number of flowers visited by individual pollinator within a clone did not increase proportionally with clone size in clumped clonal plants, and pollinator movements within a single bout mainly occurred within ramet. The selfing component analyses based on molecular markers further evidenced that within-ramet geitonogamy was the largest contributing factor to the total geitonogamy in two clonal species. Second, the experimental study of bumblebees foraging on artificial flowers showed that when the same amount of flowers was distributed among multiple ramets, geitonogamy was not higher but in fact, lower compared with one single inflorescence. The model-based simulation suggested clonal growth could promote pollination quality without increasing geitonogamy when flowers simultaneously received and donated pollen. These studies support a novel explanation of the evolution of clonality in plants. Future studies on the pollination ecology of clonal plants may focus on the effects of clonal growth on pollinator behavior and plant mating from multiple angles. Comparative studies between clonal and non-clonal taxa or between clonal and non-clonal populations of the same species are required to evaluate the ecological and evolutionary consequences of clonal growth.

Wild pollinator bees play an important role in ecosystem function and food security. In recent years, natural forests have been lost, while afforestation programs are primarily monoculture plantation, whether commercial or restorative. The net effect for bees has been fragmentation and sometime wholesale loss of habitats. For instance, diversity of wild bees in pure forest, Camellia oleifera and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantation was found to be unexpectedly low. The rampant use of neonicotinoid pesticides and herbicide is known to negatively impact development and behavior of bees. Urbanization has dramatically impacted bee communities, with significant changes in species richness between suburban and central business areas. These are likely tied to the effect of effluent, exhaust gas and dust on foraging, growth and development. Climate change from greenhouse gas emissions can disrupt the mutualistic relationship between pollinating bees and plants via rapid phenological shifts. The above environmental changes occurring in China are likely cause wide declines in diversity and decreases in populations. Although China has rich natural heritage for bees, there is a lack of long term monitoring programs for species of pollinator bees and a dearth of data on distributions of bee species. As a result, the drivers of bee community composition and population decline are poorly understood. We emphasize the need to prioritize surveys of pollinating bees, continue ongoing monitoring programs and build wider research networks for the study of wild pollinator bees. These steps will ensure that sufficient data can accumulate for developing a prediction and risk assessment framework to help manage the declines in pollinating bee populations and mitigate the attendant economic and non-economic impacts.

How species are distributed geographically and what drives these distributions remain core issues in macroecology and biogeography. Both regional and local scale factors such as temperature, precipitation, altitudinal range, habitat filtering, predation, competition and reciprocity affect the large-scale distribution pattern of insect species diversity. However, few studies have simultaneously discussed the effects of these multi-scale drivers on the geographical distribution of insect diversity. Using insect diversity data from 86 counties in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, we assessed the distribution patterns and main drivers of insect species diversity. We included mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation, paleoclimate change, altitudinal range and plant diversity as predictors. Plant diversity and altitudinal range influenced insect diversity in Inner Mongolia while climatic factors had less influence. Our results show that interspecific relationships (food diversity) and habitat heterogeneity may play a crucial role in shaping distribution patterns of insect diversity in Inner Mongolia.

Avian ecological studies tend to center on birds and their habitats. According to the literature, studies in avian ecology have shifted from focusing on behavior and habitat selection to focusing on human disturbance, habitat suitability and habitat structure, which has been made possible partially due to remote sensing (RS) technology. Characteristics and applications of RS data are varied. Here, we assessed various RS methods, considering the current state of avian ecology. Light remote sensing is most commonly used. Infrared trigger cameras and video complement field work to monitor brooding, defensive and other behaviors, while the infrared images contain massive amounts of data. Multi-spectral images are used most frequently for mapping habitat and can directly track species when captured at a high spatial resolution. Hyperspectral data has great potential in classifying objects with similar spectral characteristics. LiDAR data mainly contributes to studies of habitat structure. Researchers have used Radar to monitor flying birds over extended periods of time, where the microwave images with multi-polarization may promote the precision of mapping complex habitats. In practice, we recognize that data scale may affect study results and that some RS inversion model parameters lack ecological significance. Multi-source data could enhance mapping accuracy and provide context for the intersection of spatial and temporal resolutions of images. In the future, RS technology development should pay more attention to provide specific spectral information, more convenient interpretation methods, and more rational multi-source data combinaions, for a better use of them.

The application of UAV technology brings new opportunities and revolutions to the monitoring and research on biodiversity in protected area. However, we find that no monitoring technology solutions combining UAV and ground approaches have been formed yet, due to the lack of concerns on protected objects. Considering to better perform various monitoring technology strengths and to effectively support management and monitoring in protected area, we review study cases on UAV and ground investigation domestic and overseas firstly, and then compare the demands from conservation, management and monitoring of all kinds protected area in China. In general, the ecosystems, species, site relics and landscape are regarded as protected objects in all kinds of protected area. Meanwhile, conservation, recovering, study, education, recreation, and sustainable development become the management goals. Based on the demands mentioned above, we present an integrated technology solution which composed of four categories and 14 subjects for UAV and ground to monitor biodiversity coherently. This solution includes image recognition and classification, data inversion and pattern analysis, digital modeling and surface measuring, patrolling and inspection. In addition, monitoring time and frequency, index, integration approach, data postprocessing can be acquired in the solution. Furthermore, monitoring subjects were chosen to apply and test in the Three Parallel Rivers World Heritage, such as plant identification, vegetation growth, landscape pattern, surface measuring, and law enforcement. While achieving good results on the solution verification, we hope that this monitoring solution will do significant help to improve the protected area biodiversity conservation and management level, also be part of technological storage in assessment and supervision.

Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most important crops in the world and serves as a staple food source for more than half of the world’s population. Research into when, where, and how rice was initially cultivated and eventually domesticated is essential. Research on these questions has been greatly advanced recently, along with nearly continuous research in both genetics and archaeology using newly developed analytical techniques. Here, we review the scientific understanding of rice domestication in the Yangtze River valley from both an archaeological and genetic perspective, and discuss the relationship between rice domestication and the Yangtze River civilization. Recent genetic research suggests that domesticated rice (O. sativa ssp. japonica) first occurred in southern China, including the Yangtze River valley and the Pearl River Basin. Current findings from archaeology support the view that O. sativa ssp. japonica was firstly domesticated in the Yangtze River valley ca.10,000-8,000 BP, and rice cultivation and agricultural development triggered the Yangtze River civilization. These findings enhance our understanding of rice domestication and related cultivation culture and also have implications for conservation of plant resources in the Yangtze River valley.

How large-scale patterns of species diversity emerge is a central yet controversial issue in ecology and biogeography. Despite the long history of studies the mechanisms driving species diversity patterns in space remain poorly known. Using distribution data of all gymnosperm species in China, we assessed the influence of environmental factors on spatial patterns of species diversity in China. Further, we evaluated the proportion of gymnosperms in local floras. We found that species diversity of gymnosperms decreases along a south-north axis. Hengduan Mountains, with the highest species diversity, is a hotspot of gymnosperms. Species diversity patterns differ significantly between the gymnosperm subclasses. In particular, the species diversity pattern of Pinidae is similar to that of all species combined, while the species diversity of Gnetidae is highest in the drylands of northwestern China. In contrast, Cycadidae is restricted to southern China. Environmental heterogeneity and precipitation are the best predictors of species diversity patterns of all gymnosperms combined, followed by temperature anomaly since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), elevational range and energy. That different factors predict species diversity patterns of different gymnosperm subclasses, may reflect the differences in their evolutionary history and physiological adaptions. The ratio of gymnosperm to angiosperm species diversity is lower in the warm and humid eastern and southern parts of China, and increases towards the drylands in western and northern parts. Environmental energy and precipitation were good predictors of the ratio of gymnosperms to angiosperms. Specifically, the ratio decreases with increase of energy and decrease of precipitation suggesting that angiosperms may have stronger competitive ability in warm and humid regions while gymnosperms adapt better to dry and cold environments.

Developing effective policies for biodiversity conservation and restoration policies requires spatially and temporally explicit data on distribution of species and habitats. Remote sensing provides an effective technical tool to meet this requirement. In recent years, the rapid development of integrated multi-platform, multi-scale, multi-mode remote sensing technology the implementation of integrated remote sensing observations across space-air-field provides novel opportunities for biodiversity monitoring. In this paper, we review the main methods of remote sensing that aids biodiversity monitoring and assess existing remote sensing observation experiments. We found that current methods of biodiversity monitoring using remotely-sensed data lacked the support of space-air-field integrated observations and the existing space-air-field integrated observations did not include biodiversity parameters. The Wanglang integrated observation and experiment station for mountain ecological remote sensing illustrates the potential to integrate experimental station-based and space-air-field integrated observations for biodiversity monitoring. Our review highlights that integrating direct observations with remote sensing can provide spatio-temporally explicit information on species and habitats and improve the informed monitoring of biodiversity.

Patterns in the distribution of species richness have always been a central theme in macroecology. The karst landforms in Southwest China (mainly Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces) are among the largest of the global biodiversity hotspots. In this study, we sought to understand spatial patterns of amphibian species richness and its relationship with environmental factors. We compiled a large dataset of 18,246 records of point location data for 219 amphibian species occurring in China. We retrieved this data from published literature, Herpetology museums of Chengdu Institute of Biology and Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Museum of Nature and the Central South University of Forestry and Technology, and published sources. We used this data to generate the potential distributions of each species using ecological niche modeling. We combined the potential distributions maps of all species into a composite map to describe species richness patterns on the grid cell of 10 km × 10 km, and then conducted multivariate regression and model selection. Our results showed that 12 species were distributed only in karst area, accounting for 5.48% of the total species pool, 104 species were found in non-karst area (47.49% of total species), and 103 species were found in both karst area and non-karst area (47.03% of total species). Based on the raw data of museum collections data and MaxEnt species distribution modeling, we found that amphibian species richness in the study area decreased at higher latitudes. Karst landforms and non-karst landforms differed in their distribution patterns of amphibian species richness (χ² = 36.47, P < 0.0001), but the model was a poor fit to the data (McFadden’s Rho square = 0.0037). The most significant environmental predictors of species richness were mean annual rainfall (R² = 0.232, P < 0.001) and precipitation of driest Month (R² = 0.221, P < 0.001). The results based on model selection showed that underlying mechanisms related to landforms and different ecological hypotheses might simultaneously explain patterns of amphibian species richness in the study area. Future research should examine other biological factors such as interference, predation, and competition to understand the mechanisms controlling patterns of amphibian species richness.

China is constructing a protected area (PA) system with national park as the leading type and facing a tough task of classifying and managing PAs across fields, industries and space. Countries overall the world have established various types of PAs. In the PAs of the world, there may be the same type of PAs bears different names, different types of PAs bear the same name, one PA has more than one names. IUCN put forward a category system to classify PAs of the world, people tried to apply the category to classify China’s PAs, but the category has the problems such as the fuzzy classification, without quantification standard, and the attribute of a PA is often non-exclusive. The classification of protected land is an academic issue whereas the management of PAs is an administrative issue, which must follow the laws and administrative regulations. Nevertheless, the existing PA system is already classification system by itself. Many types of PAs, like nature reserve, scenic site, geoparks, have their own bylaws or administrative regulations and management expertise. China's national parks shall integrate and optimize rather than replacing other existing PAs. National park system as leading part of China's PA system requires top-level design and legislation. PAs should promote the harmonious development of local community, people and nature.

The mechanisms underlying elevational patterns of species diversity remain one of the most important questions in biogeography and macroecology. We studied the effects of area, mid-domain effect (MDE) and contemporary climate on elevational patterns in species richness and species density for native seed plants in Xishuangbanna, for which we used plant monograph, digital elevation model, and large-scale climatic data. We found that: (1) area, MDE, and climate explained 81.9%, 17.5%, and 60.0-69.3% of the unimodal pattern in species richness; (2) when species richness calculated using the species-area hypothesis showed a decreasing pattern along the elevational gradient. Moreover, richness was not correlated to MDE and the explanatory power of climate decreased to 32.6-40.6%; (3) species richness calculated using equal-area elevational bands showed a hump-shaped pattern but was not correlated to MDE; the explanatory power of climate was 81.6-89.9%. Our results provides comprehensive insights into the theoretical mechanisms underlying elevational patterns in species diversity and also provide practical guidance for the biodiversity conservation in Xishuangbanna.

Seed rain patterns are a crucial influence on plant regeneration. Although it is very challenging to understand the dynamics of seed rain, long-term monitoring of seeds can provide useful insights. In this study, we monitored seed rain patterns of forests dominated by Parashorea chinensis in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China for nine years. We recorded 8,993,224 seeds belonging to 226 species, between May 2008 and April 2017. We categorized seeds of 77 species as large, 61 species as medium, 72 species as small, 13 species as tiny, 1 species as infinitesimally grainy seed and 2 species as filamentous. More than 70% of all seeds belong to the top 10 dominant species. Seeds of all types showed pronounced inter-annual variation for both seed number and species number. At least one mast seeding was observed for each of the seed type during nine years.

Recently, numerous studies have used functional trait or phylogeny to infer the mechanisms of community assembly. However, different processes may lead to similar patterns of diversity. In an alpine meadow plant community in Gannan, we compared the dynamical changes in species diversity, functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity with experimental removal of plant functional groups. We assessed how colonization and extinction affected diversity dynamics after removing functional groups. We found that for communities receiving removals of different number of functional groups, species richness (SR), Shannon-Wiener index (H°), Simpson index (D), and evenness index (J) rapidly converged to the levels for natural communities. Moreover, functional diversity (FD) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) showed the similar trends as species diversity, while the mean pairwise distances (MPD/MPDa and MFD/MFDa) converged to medium levels. Next, species and functional group compositions recovered to the levels of natural communities within a short period. Finally, we found that functional patterns of species colonization and extinction was the main driver of the community recovery. This study indicates that the diversity of species, functions, and phylogeny of plant communities in alpine meadows can recover quickly from functional group removal at small scales when close to natural alpine meadows.

Mangrove forests are ecological communities growing in the intertidal zone of tropical and subtropical coastlines. Due to their high productivity, mangrove forests are essential to persistence of biodiversity along coastlines and have high carbon sequestration ability. In this article we review aspects of monitoring mangrove forests using recent multi-source remote sensing data. First, we reviewed studies on monitoring mangrove dynamics. By integrating object-based and pixel-based classification, high spatial resolution images were used to classify different mangrove species. Landsat images were then used to monitor the dynamics of mangrove forests and analyze factors driving them. Second, we reviewed studies measuring structural parameters of mangroves. Specifically, unmanned aerial vehicle multispectral data and ground-based Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data were used to compute leaf area index of mangrove forests. Finally, we reviewed studies examining physiology and biochemistry parameters. These studies explored adaption of chlorophyll content in mangrove forests under different submergence conditions, whether the invasive species Spartina alterniflora affects the light use efficiency and changed the response of photochemical reflectance index (PRI) to LUE. Our review provides a useful reference for selecting appropriate analytical methods when extracting information of mangroves from remotely sensed data. We emphasize the effectiveness of remote sensing in studying mangrove spatiotemporal patterns, extracting structural parameters, monitoring biochemical parameters, thus aiding efforts to conserve mangrove ecosystems.

Metagenomics sequencing was used to reveal the diversity of genes and their metabolic pathways involved in carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation in moss crusts in Shapotou region, located southeast of the Tengger Desert. Results showed that the microbial community related to the bacteria domain in the moss crust was the largest, followed by archaea and eukaryota. In the bacterial domain, the most abundant phyla was the Actinobacteria, followed by the Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria. Based on the functional classification of eggNOG and KEGG databases for the functional prediction of non-redundant gene catalog, the diversity of gene and metabolic pathways in the moss crust soil was high. Low nitrogen fixation was found in the moss crust as there are less metabolic pathways related to nitrogen-fixation, weakening the ecological function of ammonia synthesis from atmosphere nitrogen. The nitrate from the nitrogen pool formed by moss crust were mainly reduced to ammonium salt by nitrate reduction pathway, which may be used for the synthesis of amino acids for microbiome in the moss crust, and may also provide an effective nitrogen source for the growth of mosses.