This paper studied the flora of seed plants in the Luoxiao Mountains and revealed the transitional characteristics of five moderate mountains flora from north to south. The results indicated that 4,314 wild seed plants belonging to 1,107 genera and 179 families are distributed in the Luoxiao Mountains. (1) The Luoxiao Mountains flora consists of 25 families and 465 genera which distribute only one species, 61 oligotypic families and 432 oligotypic genera, presenting the relict of flora and intimate exchange between local floristic components and typical tropical and temperate components. (2) The families geographical areal-types were classified into 10 types, included 83 tropical families and 40 temperate families, accounting for 67.48% and 32.52%, respectively of the non-widespread families. The genus areal-types were classified into 15 types, including 484 tropical genera and 534 temperate genera accounting for 52.46% and 47.54%, respectively of the non-widespread genera. The distribution patterns of genera are abundant with pantropic areal-type, tropical areal-type, North temperate areal-type, and East Asia areal-type, which reflect that the flora of the Luoxiao Mountains, the paleo-tropical flora and temperate tertiary flora are strongly interrelated. (3) The floristic compositions amongst five mountains in the Luoxiao Mountains have marked spatial heterogeneity from north to south, which the R/T value, i.e ratio of tropical genera to temperate genera, increases gradually. The Mufu Mountains experienced stronger temperate elements, which are related to Central China flora, while the Wanyang Mountains and the Zhuguang Mountains contain stronger tropical elements. Climate fluctuations may be the main reason for the formation of the modern floristic distribution pattern in the region.

The Luoxiao Mountains with a bundant spermatophyte flora, which is an important channel connecting the flora of East, South and Centre of China, and was characterized by an prominent antiquity and relict property. This study focuses on endemic and relict genera or species in the Luoxiao Mountains by analyzing their composition, geographical structure and formation. (1) The results show that 3 families, 55 genera and 1,624 species are endemic to China within the Luoxiao Mountains; and 43 species and 7 varieties are endemic to the Luoxiao Mountains. Among the endemic genera, the palaeoendemic and relict genera account for a large proportion, which was dominated by temperate elements (account for 55.91% of total of endemic genera). (2) There are 165 relict genera in the Luoxiao Mountains, including 132 woody genera, and they mainly dominated by a tropics Asia dirtribution genera, East Asian-North American disjuncted distribution genera, East Asian endemic genera and Chinese endemic genera. (3) Additionally, due to climate fluctuations after the Miocene Epoch and during the Quaternary glacial period, the Luoxiao Mountains appears to have inherited a abundant evergreen northern tropical flora and deciduous Arctic or Northern-Tertiary flora. The analysis of endemic and relict characteristic implies that the Luoxiao Mountains is an important biological refuge, which is important to preserve and rediffusion of the flora of eastern China.

In order to strengthen the protection and management of rare and endangered plants in the Luoxiao Mountains, we made extensive investigations on the species composition, population size, and survival status of the rare and endangered plants based on vegetation and floristic surveys. The results are as follows: (1) A total of 279 rare and endangered plant species from 142 genera and 59 families were recorded in the Luoxiao Mountains. Among them, 17 species were included in the IUCN Red List, i.e. 2 critical species (CR), 3 endangered species (EN), and 12 vulnerable species (VU); and 105 species were included in the China Biodiversity Red List: Higher Plants, i.e. 9 critical species, 33 endangered species, 63 vulnerable species; 257 species in the National Key Protected Wild Plants List, i.e. Grade I 8 species, i.e. Ginkgo biloba, Abies beshanensis var. ziyuanensis, Taxus wallichiana var. mairei, Brasenia schreberi, Bretschneidera sinensis, Dendrobium hancockii, D. officinale, and D. moniliforme, and Grade II 249 species; 71 species were listed in Appendix II of CITES. (2) The Luoxiao Mountains are composed of five medium-sized mountains, and across these mountains, the number of rare and endangered plants changed from north to south, indicating that their survival status was closely related to the species richness and the preservation of vegetation and flora in the areas. Mt. Mufu had 147 species, Mt. Jiuling 138 species, Mt. Wugong 133 species, Mt. Wanyang 227 species, and Mt. Zhuguang 192 species. (3) According to the species composition of rare and endangered plants, there were a large number of ancient, relict and endemic taxa, which are affected by climate and geographical environment, including 19 monotypic genera and 129 species endemic to China. According to the survival status, and distribution of rare and endangered species, this paper puts forward some protection measures, such as community monitoring or appropriate artificial intervention, etc.

The Luoxiao Mountains are a main chain of north-south mountains in southeast China, covering approximately 67,600 km². It is considered a biodiversity hot spot that served as glacial refuge during the Tertiary period for eastern Eurasia. Starting in 2013, we investigated chiropteran diversity in the Luoxiao Mountains by conducting five-year surveys using mist nets, hand nets and harp traps. We identified 40 chiropteran species belonging to 4 families, 14 genera through morphological examination, phylogenetic inference, comparing to species identification from the literatures. Of the species we identified, 25 are primarily found in the region, and 9 belong to new provincial records. Current and potential future distribution area for bats was predicted based on all occurrence coordinates using the online platform “the Biodiversity & Climate Change Virtual Laboratory”. The random forest algorithm performed better than all other methods, and further indicates that precipitation seasonality and annual mean temperature contribute the most in models. Additionally, we found that the central and southern region (about 30% of the Luoxiao Mountains area) are hot spots for bats. The future distribution prediction for 2050 illustrates a trend of range expansion under the lowest greenhouse gas emissions conditions (RCP 2.6). Nevertheless, suitable habitats for bats will dramatically contract and transfer to higher regions under RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5. We hope this study benefits future research, conservation and management for chiropteran in the Luoxiao Mountains.

The Luoxiao Mountains is a key area of biodiversity conservation in China, and is also watershed of the Ganjiang River and Xiuhe River basins and Xiangjiang River basin. However, there is little research on fish diversity in the Luoxiao Mountains, and species composition, distribution and threat factors are unclear. Here, fish specimens were collected in eleven streams of the Luoxiao Mountains between 2014 and 2018. The fish specimens collected from the Luoxiao Mountains belonged to 113 species, 64 genera, 17 families and 5 orders. A total of 108 fish species were found in the eastern slope of the Louxiao Mountains, which were more than those from the western slope (72 species). The ecological types of fish was mainly settlement, demersal and carnivorous, and fauna was mainly the endemic fishes of the river plain in East Asia. From the perspective of species diversity, the Suichuan River, Yuanshui River, Shushui River and Xiuhe River had a high diversity in fish species, and a low diversity occurred in the Jinjiang River and Fushui River. The analysis of beta diversity showed that some differentiation in fish species was found between the Suichuan River and Jinjiang River, Heshui River, Fushui River.

The resources of macrofungi in the Luoxiao Mountains have been investigated for 5 years, and more than 5,100 specimens were collected. A total of 672 species of macrofungi, belonging to 20 orders, 72 families and 218 genera, have been identified based on morphological and molecular analyses. Among them, there were 115 species in the Mufu Mountains, 168 species in the Jiuling Mountains, 77 species in the Wugong Mountains, 220 species in the Wanyang Mountains and 193 species in the Zhuguang Mountains. There were 37 newly recorded genera and 514 newly recorded species in the Luoxiao Mountains. The species composition of macrofungi in the Luoxiao Mountains showed that there were 18 dominant families with more than 10 species, accounting for 73.36% of the total species, including Polyporaceae, Agaricaceae, Entolomataceae, and so on. There were 34 dominant genera with more than 5 species, accounting for 55.36% of the total species, such as Entoloma, Amanita, Marasmius, and so on. There were 2 genera and 46 species endemic to China in this mountain range. The assessment of utilization value of the macrofungi showed that there were133 edible species, 136 medicinal species and 87 poisonous species in the Luoxiao Mountains, indicating the resources have good application prospects. This study provides important scientific basis for the protection, utilization and management of macrofungal resources in this area.