Background & Aims: The post-2020 global biodiversity framework (the “Framework”) being prepared by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be negotiated and adopted at the second part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP15). The Framework is a landmark and plays an important guiding role for future global biodiversity conservation, economic and social development. Due to the continuous loss of biodiversity, the vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050 can only be fulfilled through transformative actions. In this paper, we describe the progress of the negotiations of the 22 action-oriented targets in drafting the Framework as at the fourth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group (hereinafter referred to as “OEWG”), so as to provide a perspective and methodological reference for management departments, scientific research institutions, enterprises, social organizations, and professionals engaged in biodiversity education and conservation to understand the reshaping of the international economic order through global biodiversity governance.

Progress: The Framework is built around a theory of change, and aims to set ambitious, practical and balanced biodiversity conservation goals. Biodiversity greatly affects human beings, and the actualization of the goals and targets set by the Framework will have a great impact on the production and consumption of human society. For several reasons including the complexity of the Convention mechanisms and Framework negotiations, few people have a full understanding of the content of the Framework and the negotiation process it entails. After four meetings of OEWG, the structure and elements of the Framework have been defined. The 22 urgent action-orientated targets over the next decade for 2030 are of greatest concern. The targets break down into three components: reducing threats to biodiversity (targets 1-8), meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing (targets 9‒13) and tools and solutions for implementation and mainstreaming (targets 14‒22).

Prospects: In this paper, we discussed the core topics of the negotiations, such as the 30 × 30 target and resource mobilization in the Framework in order to provide a reference for relevant stakeholders to better grasp the dynamics of environmental politics and trends of participating in an international competition of science and technology, trade, investment, manufacturing, and other fields. This will promote people’s living in harmony with nature, and help build a planetary community of life with a shared future.

Background & Aims: Biodiversity, climate, food and livelihoods are inextricably intertwined. To effectively address issues within the economy, nature and the climate emergency, we need to adopt a holistic and integrated approach to transform systems at scale. It is critically important to understand “trade offs” between economic growth and nature loss; in other words, how economic measures for biodiversity conservation can be achieved through the cooperation of government, finance and business sectors. We draw on international experience across biodiversity-reliant industries in order to shed light on China’s transformative development that embeds the value of nature in all economic decision-making.

Methods: Main approaches adopted in this research include desk review, comparative study, and categorization. Through the lens of momentums characterized by pluralization and marketization in the economic measures for biodiversity conservation on the global scale, wer analyzed 150 examples of nature-positive economic instruments applied across numerous industries in more than 30 countries. We classified these instruments into 8 categories: (1) Top-level Design, with commitments to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 using timetables and roadmaps; (2) Environmental Economic Accounting, e.g. UN-SEEA, GEP (Gross Ecosystem Product) and Natural Capital Protocol, etc.; (3) Ecological Transformation, especially in three key socio-economic systems: food, land and ocean use, infrastructure and built environments, energy and extractives; (4) Green Finance, outlined in classifications of both “Green Financing” and “Financing Green”; (5) Market Certification, with a focus on soft commodities, e.g. Eco-Label, Rainforest Alliance, etc., (6) Incentive Reform, including the traditional “Business As Usual” (BSU) replaced by No-Net-Loss and Nature-positive outlooks, harmful subsidies eliminated and redirected, and financial flows realigned; (7) Climate Synergy, the value of biodiversity mitigating and adapting to climate change embeded in all economic decision-making to ensure actions were within ecological thresholds; (8) Supportive Instruments, legal and administrative measures that are carried out to reinforce effectiveness of economic policy, e.g. ESG information disclosure and quotas, permits, and licensing. Furthermore, we analyzed and compare the similarities and differences of countries adopting the above economic measures.

Results: Across countries, we found the following trends of economic measures for biodiversity conservation: (1) Intensification. Previous thought that “economic growth is prioritized over ecological conservation” had been challenged by “economy and ecology are put on an equal footing” (Ecology Priority). More and more emphasis had been placed on synergy among government, finance and business to achieve transformative change towards carbon neutral, nature positive and equitable development standards; (2) Differentiation. In the three traditional policy instruments, countries in the developing world relied mainly on public funding and finance from the government sector while developed countries use the private sector market as the main channel for conservation resources; (3) Pluralization. Since the value of nature is multi-dimensional, governments need to use a variety of economic instruments rather than a single policy to achieve biodiversity conservation objectives. Economic policies should bridge connections to livelihood and well-being, climate change, and resource management; (4) Marketization. Fostering the role of markets in ecological conservation solved issues such as a lack of public funding and inconsistencies between financial and taxation systems in meeting environmental goals. Without this, economic problems such as market failure, excessive use of natural assets, unclear property rights, high transaction costs, and asymmetry in supply and demand result.

Conclusions: A combined approach of “Top-down” and “Bottom-up” actions are proposed to synergize government, finance and business sectors. We encourage that institutions take advantage of opportunities arising from the "Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework as an internationally overarching framework providing platform and metrics for coordinated national actions. This will expedite application of policy portfolios on global scale and promote the integration of economic and environmental policies, of which market incentives remain at the core.

Background & Aim:Nearly 2,000 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports have been annually released in China, in many of which biodiversity related issues are depicted. Nevertheless, reporting materiality and credibility is insufficient and hence requires review and guidance. In view of the First Draft of Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, “All businesses assess and report on their dependencies and impacts on biodiversity” (Target 15), calling for “responsibility to implement mechanisms for planning, monitoring, reporting and review.” This paper seeks to address the insufficiencies in CSR reporting and help mitigate risks arising from nature loss and mobilize resources for biodiversity.

Results: By reviewing the progress of corporate biodiversity disclosure at home and abroad identified three deficiencies: (1) A lack in mandates for materiality of report contents and standardization of report format and third-party auditing, which results in voluntary reporting by businesses that is characterized by fragmented information, missing key scientific indicators, incomparability of data and result between different entities; (2) A lack in information integrity, consistency and accuracy, as most biodiversity data sources come from a single enterprise project, rather than the overall company; (3) A lack in quantitative and monetized measurement of input efforts versus output performance, and analyses on comparing with peer data (horizontally) or with historical data (vertically). Further study of “China CSR Report Evaluation Index” revealed six major findings: (1) There is differentiation in transparency between industries and enterprises; (2) Businesses highly dependent on nature tend to integrate biodiversity into resource management strategies, e.g. in sourcing and supply chains; (3) The catalytic role of financial sector is prominent, such as responsible investment and green credit; (4) Most reports are far more qualitative than quantitative and few are third-party verified; (5) Species protection becomes the focus of corporate reports, which results in serious content homogeneity, demonstrating the need for companies to build capacity; (6) Disclosure on monetary input is relatively conservative.

Suggestions & Perspectives: In this paper, we put forward four suggestions: top-level design, policy instruction, incentive measure and capacity-building to improve the reporting deficiencies through the lens of mechanism development for corporate biodiversity disclosure in China. This is conducive to quantifying ecological impacts, managing investment risks, and implementing decisions to enlarge biodiversity financing.

Background & Contents: Business play an important role in biodiversity mainstreaming. This paper summarizes the dependence and impact of business on biodiversity, reviewed decisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity that refer to business. The analysis of the implementation progress of the four mainstreaming targets in the 2011‒2020 Biodiversity Strategic Plan shows that strengthening the participation of stakeholders, including enterprises, can be one of the prerequisites for stronger requirements for future biodiversity action. The paper summarizes four global pathways for strengthening business engagement, including awareness raising, guiding financial flow, updating reporting systems and establishing partnerships, and concludes four challenges, lack of awareness on biodiversity value, financial gaps, the need for technical and methodological support, as well as the need for capacity building.

Suggestions: The paper proposes the strategies for strengthening business engagement in biodiversity mainstreaming, including strengthening biodiversity financing, improving environmental performance system, strengthening scientific support and establishing a multi-stakeholder collaboration mechanism.

Background & Aim: Finance-related issues have been the focus of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Financial mechanism and resource mobilization are recurring topics at each Conference of the Parties (COP) of CBD. As the funding issue relates to the political wills of the CBD parties, there are substantial disputes between developed and developing countries. As the largest developing country and the current president of CBD COP15, China plays a significant role in resource mobilization, which necessitates additional research. In this context, this paper discussed the central elements of the CBD’s financial issues, including public funding, funding efficiency and effectiveness, biodiversity-harmful incentives, and the participation of stakeholders.

Methods: We analyzed the major points of contention that arose during negotiations, including whether to emphasize multi-channel capital increase, whether to establish a new financial mechanism, whether to eliminate all biodiversity-harmful subsidies, and the specific financing goals.

Suggestions: We propose to increase government funding for biodiversity, improve the coordination amongst related departments, catalyze social funds by various financial tools, minimize biodiversity-related risks, improve information closure, maximize the role of market mechanisms and to develop innovative financing channels.

Background & Aims: It has been globally recognized that biodiversity loss poses socio-economic and financial risks. A growing body of research shows that the loss of biodiversity is not only ecologically relevant, but also could threaten financial stability. Financial institutions play an important role in financing biodiversity conservation. The rapid development of green finance in recent years has also brought historic opportunities and challenges to newly emerging biodiversity finance initiatives in China. Efforts have been made to integrate biodiversity into green finance standards and other areas, but the concrete practice of biodiversity finance is still under-explored. This article focuses on recent explorations of biodiversity finance by various countries and emphasises on the innovative practices of financial products at national and regional levels.

Progress:Innovative financial products such as green credit, green securities and green insurance direct funds towards biodiversity-friendly projects and have become an important way for countries to explore the field of biodiversity finance. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and other countries have accumulated a wide range of practical experience in the application and risk research of green financial products such as green credit and green bonds. They are now exploring innovative products and financing models such as blue bonds, eco-labels and natural debt conversion mechanisms. There are five main objectives for financial institutions taking on biodiversity conservation initiatives: (1) to guide investments in favour of nature conservation, (2) to fully integrate conservation awareness into their business, (3) to actively avoid investment and financing activities that would lead to biodiversity loss internally and (4) to strengthen international cooperation in biodiversity and investment in eco-friendly projects.

Prospects: Under the enormous challenges facing global biodiversity, the rapid development of biodiversity finance is urgent. It is imperative that biodiversity conservation be fully integrated into the green finance classification criteria. Financial institutions will become the most important actors in biodiversity financing by pushing resources towards biodiversity conservation and nature-based solutions, directing capital to eco-friendly projects, and exploring synergies between biodiversity conservation and climate change. As people’s awareness of biodiversity conservation increases, the scale of funding demand for biodiversity conservation and development in China will continue to grow. Financial support for biodiversity conservation in China will help to transform enterprises in an eco-friendly, green and low-carbon direction. In the future, financial institutions will use the relatively well-established green financial standards as a reference to incorporate biodiversity risks into their biodiversity management framework.

Challenges & Recommendations: Currently, China faces many problems in reaching biodiversity conservation. There are insufficient regulations and guidance at the national level, and a lack of awareness and assessment of biodiversity risks among financial institutions. This paper proposes diversified support paths and makes recommendations for China’s financial institutions to participate in biodiversity conservation. Financial institutions must incorporate biodiversity conservation into the green finance standard system, formulate relevant to innovate biodiversity friendly financial products, accelerate the development of biodiversity impact assessment tools, and improve the system for biodiversity information disclosure.

Aims: Due to complex geomorphology and diverse landscapes, the southern Hengduan Mountains region is home to highly diverse vegetation. The evolution and formation of such diversity is an interesting topic in the fields of botany and ecology, and plant fossils are an important proxy for researching this question.

Methods: In this study, we integrated published sources of nine fossil floras from the Pliocene of the southern Hengduan Mountains region. We first inferred the vegetation types of these fossil floras on the basis of their taxonomic compositions and dominant elements, and then depicted the diversity and spatial distribution of vegetation in the region during the Pliocene. We also correlated the rise of vegetation diversity and the formation of vegetation distribution to major environmental changes in the southern Hengduan Mountains region.

Results: Our synthesis indicates that the southern Hengduan Mountain region already held a variety of vegetation types during the Pliocene, including subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest, subtropical deciduous broadleaved forest, sclerophyllous evergreen broadleaved forest, mixed coniferous broadleaved forest and shrubby meadow. The vegetation tended to have a warm affinity in the south and a cool-temperate affinity in the north, demonstrating altitudinal gradients with latitude at that time. Moreover, vegetation types are shown to be stratified at some localities, suggesting altitudinal gradients at local scales that are likely associated with the occurrence of high mountains. These are highly similar to the modern patterns of vegetation diversity and distribution in this region.

Conclusion: Our study concludes that the modern diversity and distribution of vegetation in the southern Hengduan Mountain region was established no later than the Pliocene. However, more plant fossils from deeper times are needed to verify if the current vegetation was formed at an earlier geological age.

Aims: Northwest Yunnan-Xizang and Southeast Yunnan-West Guangxi are two regions with distinct differences in pedigree age and appearance in southwestern China. The two regions are characterized by young flora dominated by herbaceous plants and ancient flora dominated by woody plants, respectively. It is unknown how the floristic differentiation of these two regions has formed.

Methods: We report new fossil records of Cedrelospermum and Ailanthus from the two study regions. We also review the fossil history of the two genera, particularly those in Southwest China.

Results: The fossil history of the two genera in Southwest China is as follows: Cedrelospermum occurred in the middle Eocene to late Oligocene of Xizang (C. tibetica) and the late Eocene of Southeast Yunnan (C. asiaticum). Ailanthus appeared in the middle Eocene to late Oligocene of Xizang (A. maximus) and the late Eocene of Southeast Yunnan (A. confucii). Our results show that both Northwest Yunnan-Xizang and Southeast Yunnan-West Guangxi floras grew Cedrelospermum and Ailanthus in the Paleogene, but the species are different since the late Eocene.

Conclusion: The genus level similarity of Northwest Yunnan-Xizang and Southeast Yunnan-West Guangxi floras support the hypothesis that floristic exchanges have occurred between the two regions. However, the difference in species indicates that the two floras have separated from each other since or before the late Eocene due to environmental differentiation. The woody Cedrelospermum and Ailanthus have disappeared from Xizang, and have been replaced by a generally younger herbaceous flora. In contrast, Ailanthus occurs presently in Southeast Yunnan, providing evidence for the archaic nature of the flora. Our study provides fossil evidence for the similarity and differentiation of the floras of Northwest Yunnan-Xizang and Southeast Yunnan-West Guangxi in the geological past.

Aims: Located in the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, Yunnan Province is mainly characterized by a typical tropical monsoon climate and hosts the richest biodiversity in China. Dramatic tectonic activities during the Cenozoic era created many intermountain basins. These sedimentary basins provide excellent opportunities for understanding Cenozoic vegetation evolution, biodiversity and paleoenvironmental change. However, the ages of the basins remain far from fully investigated. Here we use the Puyang Coal mine section, Puyang Basin, southeastern Yunnan, southwestern China, to investigate paleoclimate and the evolution of vegetation, as well as the age of the coal-accumulation strata.

Methods: In this study, 40 palynological samples were collected from different layers in the Puyang Coal mine section, and the pollen and spores were extracted using the conventional acid-base method. The samples were used to reconstruct palynological assemblages and vegetation features by identifying and counting the species, quantity and proportion of pollen in sedimentary strata.

Results:A total of 74 morphological genera of pollen were identified in this study, including 13 gymnosperms, 49 angiosperms, 10 ferns, and 2 algae.

Conclusion: The palynological assemblage of the lower part of the study section is dominated by Taxodiaceaepollenites, indicating a swamp forest with a relatively humid climate in the cold season. The palynological assemblage of the upper section indicates a mixed subtropical evergreen and deciduous broadleaved forest, dominated by evergreen oaks, along with other subtropical taxa, such as Caryapollenites, Ilexpollenites, Juglanspollenites, and Liquidambarpollenites.It represents a warm and humid climate with significant seasonality. By combining newly discovered mammal fossil and palynological evidence, we infer that the age of the coal-accumulation strata in the Puyang Basin is late Eocene. The palynological assemblage also indicates the modernization of the biota in Southeast Yunnan since the late Eocene.

Aims: Fossil leaves of the genus Quercushave been widely reported from the Neogene. However, many fossil species were previously named without epidermal features. The present specimens from the Pliocene Ciying Formation in Yiliang, Yunnan Province provide detailed information about cuticular features, which can be useful for understanding the morphological variation at the genus and species level. Moreover, we explored the evolution of the evergreen broad-leaved forest in Yunnan Province, of which the genus Quercusis still the dominant element.

Methods: We observed the cuticular characteristics of the specimens using standard maceration and mounted it in glycerol on glass slides. By comparing leaf physiognomy and cuticular characteristics with previously reported fossil species and extant leaves, the present specimens were identified at the species level, containing three extinct and one existing species. Combined with else fossil plants collected from the Pliocene Ciying Formation, the vegetation form of Yiliang flora was recognized and compared with other floras of the same age in Yunnan Province.

Results: We systematically described leaf physiognomy and cuticular characteristics of four species of the genus Quercus Q. scottii, Q. simulata, Q. latifolia, and Q. cf. delavayi. The present Q. cf. delavayiwas similar to Q. praedelavayi†, Q. tenuipilosa† and living species Q. delavayi in leaf morphology and epidermal structures except for the trichome base densities. The compound trichome bases densely occurring in the advanced veins may be related to a defense function. The nearest living relative of the studied fossils were assigned based on morphological similarity. The fossil components indicated a semi-humid evergreen broad-leaved forest existed in the Pliocene of Yiliang area, which was dominated by Quercus sect. Cyclobalanopsis.The vegetation form was similar to the floras distributed in low-middle latitudes, rather than in middle-high latitude areas. The morphological characteristics of the present fossils Q. scottii, Q. simulata and Q. latifolia were similar to the Q. scottii of the late Eocene, Q. simulataand Q. latifolia of the Miocene, respectively, and all of them matched the nearest living relative species well. This implies that the dominant elements of the evergreen broad-leaved forest were inherited from the distant ages without great variation.

Conclusion: By analyzing leaf physiognomy and epidermal features, we determined that the present specimens belong to four species of the genus Quercus (Q. scottii, Q. simulata, Q. latifolia, and Q. cf. delavayi) and the most useful features for distinguishing among specimens are leaf shape, leaf base and apex shape, number of secondary veins, epidermal cells and anticlinal walls, stomatal size and frequency, trichome base type and density. However, of these characteristics cannot be used alone. The distribution and main components of evergreen broad-leaved forests in Yunnan have not changed greatly since the Cenozoic, which could be related to the complex topography and diversified environment of Yunnan Province.

Aims: The gobi desert covers over 200,000 km² on the Alxa Plateau in northern China. Due to climate change, the ecosystem is subject to continuous warming and extreme weather events. Yet, the relative impacts of environmental filtering versus dispersal limitations on β diversity and its two components, species turnover and nestedness, in this unique ecosystem are still unclear.

Methods: We selected 276 plant plots in the gobi desert region of Alxa to examine how geographic distance and environmental factors influence β diversity and its two components.

Results: The results showed that: (1) β diversity and species turnover had a significantly linear relationship with geographic distance, and most of the variance in β diversity of the plant community was caused by species turnover and not nestedness. (2) A partial Mantel analysis showed that both environmental distance and geographic distance impacted β diversity and species turnover. Variance partitioning analysis indicated that while environmental distance and geographic distance together explained 10.84%-17.67% and 15.47%-24.81% of the variation in β diversity and species turnover on the Bray-Curtis and Sørensen indices, respectively, environmental distance alone explained 6.62%-9.97% and 8.98%-14.51%. Among all environmental factors, mean diurnal range, soil water content, and surface gravel coverage were the most important variables for explaining β diversity and species turnover.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that while β diversity in the gobi desert region of Alxa is determined by environmental filtering, dispersal limitation, and other unexamined processes together, environmental filtering may have the strongest impacts.

Aims: Plant sexual systems play an important role in community regeneration, adaptability and future development. The purpose of this study is to clarify the quantitative characteristics of karst forest sexual systems and its relationship with environmental factors.

Methods: In this study, the adjacent grid method was used to establish 11 vertical plots from the foot to the top of Baixian Mountain in Maolan and 21 horizontal plots from the middle of the mountain, along the same contour line. The quantitative characteristics of woody plant sexual systems with DBH greater than 1 cm in the sample plots were characterized and analyzed. An independent sample t test was used to analyze in the number and sexual system of plants in the sample plots. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was conducted to explore the correlation between quantitative characteristics of sexual systems and environmental factors.

Results: In the sample plots, there were 14,622 woody plants of 286 species. These species are composed of 156 hermaphroditic (54.5%), 57 monoecious (20.0%) and 73 dioecious (25.5%) species. Vertical sample plots located at higher altitude had a significantly greater number of monoecious species and significantly lower proportion of bisexual species. While sample plots located on the mountain slope had a lower diversity of plant sexual systems. In the horizontal sample plots, there were no obvious patterns observed among the number of individual of plants, species proportion and sexual system diversity index of hermaphrodite plants, monoecious plants and dioecious plants. Independent sample t test showed that there were significant differences in the number of plants and the species proportion between the vertical sample plot and the horizontal sample plots (P < 0.05), but no significant differences were observed in the number of plants nor the proportion between dioecious and hermaphrodite species. RDA showed that environmental factors influence the quantitative characteristics of different sexual systems. Altitude had an extremely significant (P < 0.01) effect and slope position was significant as well (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: The woody plant sexual systems in Maolan karst forest are different from other areas in aspects of richness, diversity, and complexity. Most species populations of woody plant are small and their quantitative distribution characteristics may be the result of adaptation to the heterogeneity of karst habitats.

Aims: Competition can affect the growth of individual trees and is a key factor that shapes the structure and drive the dynamic change of forest communities. It plays an important role in population spatial distribution patterns, population dynamics and succession process. For endangered plants, intraspecific and interspecific competition can be driving factors that cause plant mortality. Forestry management departments can formulate targeted conservation strategies based on the predicted competition sources. In order to explore endangered reasons and provide protection measures, the intraspecific and interspecific competition of a wild Michelia wilsonii (yellow lily-tree) population at Zhougong Mountain in Ya’an was studied.

Methods: The intraspecific and interspecific competitive relationship was analyzed, competition radius was determined by gradually extending range method, and competition index (CI) was calculated by using the Hegyi competition model.

Results: A radius of 10 m was the most reasonable competition range of the M. wilsoniipopulation in this study, which best reflects the intensity of intraspecific competition. The mean competition index of individuals in the small and medium diameter class (3.97 and 3.14, respectively) was greater than the total mean competition index (2.68). The competitive pressure of M. wilsonii primarily came from the intraspecies, and the intraspecific competition (348.72, 62.52%) was stronger than that of interspecific competition (209.03, 37.48%). In addition, as the diameter class increased, the intraspecific, interspecific, and total competition indices decreased. This indicated that as M. wilsonii individuals became larger, they were released from competition, and they became a dominant species of the population. The intraspecific and total competition also peaked at 7.5-12.5 cm and 32.5-37.5 cm, respectively, while interspecific competition peaked only at 32.5-37.5 cm. Of the 21 competitive trees in this population Cunninghamia lanceolata, Prunus conradinae, and Ilex hylonoma were the most important. The relationship between diameter at breast height (DBH) and competition index of M. wilsonii was approximately an exponential function (CI = 3.8907e^-0.048x, R² = 0.1087, P < 0.01), with the competition index decreasing continuously with the increase of the objective trees’ DBH. When the DBH reached 30 cm, the competitive intensity plateaus.

Conclusion: Individual M. wilsonii in the small and medium tree stages were clustered and influenced by strong intraspecific competition. Individuals entering the old tree stage, were subjected to strong interspecific competition, and sporadic individuals grew vigorously. To better protect M. wilsoniipopulation, the relationship among forest competition, spatial patterns, and population renewal should be fully considered in stand protection and management. Appropriate human intervention measurements for the small and medium diameter class should be carried out to promote the regeneration of small and medium trees, to reduce the competitive exclusion among plants, and accelerate plant growth and conservation of population.

Aims: Plant diversity plays a crucial role in regulating food web dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Existing studies have documented significant impact on large herbivores and ecosystem functioning from loss in plant species diversity. Yet, little is known about effect of plant diversity loss on small herbivores and its functional consequence on food web dynamics, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem service, due to difficulty in distinguishing the role of plant diversity from larger fluctuations of small herbivore populations under the confounding effect of multiple ecological factors and demographic stochasticity.

Methods: Based on our long-term experiment of plant species removal in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau, we repeatedly measured the number of grassland caterpillar (Gynaephora alpherakiif) in each plot (i.e. density) in July and August over five years (2016-2020). We examined the effect of plant species removal on caterpillar population by associating changes in caterpillar counts with a shift in plant community attributes following plant removal and using a set of generalized linear mixed models.

Results: Plant removal induced a difference in the plant community, which significantly and consistently influenced the caterpillar counts over years and months independent of the observed variation in caterpillar counts accounted for by the difference in years and observational times within each month. Comparing the caterpillar counts in plots without removing plant species, (i) the caterpillar counts decreased in plots subjected to removal of dominant species (Kobresia capillifolia) in both July and August across five years, and increased in plots subjected to removal of forbs species in August of 2016 and 2019, and (ii) the caterpillar counts tended to increase in plots subjected to removal of legume species but only significantly in few cases, and did not significantly differ with plots subjected to removal of partial species (accounting for 20% aboveground biomass) of each functional groups. Further analysis showed that neither total aboveground biomass nor plant species richness and total individual numbers was significantly correlated with the caterpillar counts. The variation in caterpillar counts was associated positively with aboveground biomass of sedges and grasses as well as grass species richness, but negatively with the amount of forbs and legumes. The structural equation model further revealed that the removal of Kobresiaand grass species affected caterpillar counts through decreasing aboveground biomass of graminoids, but increasing graminoids following removal of forb and legume species promoted the density of caterpillars.

Conclusion: Based on field observations on the grassland caterpillar populations in plots subjected to different removal protocols, our study provides robust evidence that the decline in relative abundance of graminoids significantly reduced the fitness of caterpillars, and thus potentially impacts grassland functioning and ecosystem service. This study also suggests that future research on biodiversity effects and biological control of pests needs to pay more attention to the effects of plant functional diversity and demographic stochasticity on small herbivores.

Aims: Siberian crane (Grus leucogeranus) is a migratory, endangered species that uses the Songnen Plain as a main stopover area. Traditionally a wetland species, today most populations of Siberian cranes feed and rest during migratory stopovers in fields of corn (Zea mays). By examining the causes of this change in stopover habitat use, we can provide better protection for and potentially recovery of this declining species.

Methods: We recorded the numbers of Siberian cranes and both food resource and habitat usage on stopover sites on the Songnen Plain from September 2020 to November 2021 in the study area. These data were collected and analyzed using Google Earth, ArcGIS 10.7.

Results: Of the total number of Siberian cranes we observed, 72.7% were feeding on farmland, which was 2.66 times more than that of wetland habitats. Farmland has become the main feeding habitat for Siberian cranes. The total energy provided by farmland was 1.24-2.79 times as much as that provided by wetlands based on different harvesting methods, and the energy intake of Siberian cranes in farmland was about 1.56 times that of wetland. The daily feeding budget of Siberian cranes in farmland was 53.5% of their total time, which was 1.67 times more than that in wetlands. The feeding success rate in farmland was 1.56 times as much as that in wetland habitats.

Conclusions & Suggestions: The main reasons for the changes in feeding habitat use on migratory stopover sites by Siberian cranes may be attributed to the comprehensive effects of the change in water level, altered food resources, various feeding difficulties, and human disturbance. For effective protection and management of Siberian crane populations, we suggest that water supply be regulated to maintain wetland habitats on their migratory stopover sites to restore their main food source. It is also necessary to protect the agricultural land used by the species, and create a habitat refuge to support birds during their migration when they are particularly vulnerable to resource shortages.

Aims: In recent years, wind power generation has been developing rapidly in China, and studies have found that wind power projects have varifying degrees of impact on bird diversity. However, previous studies primarily adopted traditional survey methods of birds in the region, without conducting long-term systematic monitoring of birds killed by wind turbines. Little is known about the possible causes of wind turbine mortality. Thus, it is difficult to propose targeted mitigation measures based on the actual causes of birds being killed by wind turbines.

Methods: In this paper, our study area was the wind turbines factory in the coastal area of Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. The carcass search method was applied to investigate the wind turbine mortality of birds in the study area. We conducted a total of 22 consecutive surveys from October 2020 to September 2021 to explored bird mortality from wind turbines.

Results: (1) There were 12 species in 8 orders and 10 families that were found dead under the wind turbines. The dead birds were primarily native birds or species that breed in the region, accounting for 66.7% of the dead bird species. (2) A total of 41 dead birds were found under the wind turbines. The most common were ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) at 19 individuals, which were generally found in farmland or agricultural protection forest. Dead night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) and egrets (Egretta garzetta) were also common, with 6 and 5 individuals found, respectively, and were generally found in near fishponds. (3) Based on the injuries of the dead birds, it was concluded that the bases of the wind turbines caused more collisions resulting in death than the fan blades.

Conclusion: According to our study, we proposed the following suggestions to mitigate the impact of wind turbines on birds. These suggestions include continuous bird monitoring, controlling habitats under wind turbines, and strengthening the research and development of bird-related repellent technology and equipment. We hope this study can provide a reference for the coordinated development between wind power and ecological environmental protection in China.

Purpose: Wuyishan National Park is among the first national parks officially established in China in 2021. The park locates in Wuyishan Mountains, where are the boundary of the South China Area and the East China Area in the South- east Asiatic Subregion in terms of animal geographical division. Understanding the current composition of fish diversity in Wuyishan National Park and its adjacent areas is significant to explore the influence of Wuyishan Mountains in China’s freshwater fish fauna. More importantly, to investigate the fish diversity and resource status in different dimensions enable us create comprehensive conservation strategy for Wuyishan National Park from the perspective of ecological protection and economic development. And it will also benefit all stakeholders at the same time.

Methods: We investigated the Chongyangxi, Beixi, Mayangxi, Jiuquxi, and Yanshan rivers in Wuyishan National Park and its adjacent areas in dry (April) and rainy (July) seasons of 2021. The fish diversity of five rivers was evaluated using three species diversity indices (Margalef richness index, Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou evenness index) and three functional diversity indices (functional richness, functional evenness and functional divergence). Fish abundance greater than 10% of the total species is considered as the dominant species in this study.

Results: Based on historical data and our current surveys, we investigated 113 native fish species belonging to 61 genera, 17 families, and 5 orders in Wuyishan National Park and its adjacent areas. Cypriniformes and Perciformes are dominant orders, accounting for 72.6% and 14.2% of the native fish species, respectively. Myxocyprinus asiaticus, Anguilla marmorata and Anguilla japonica are threatened fish in this area, of which Myxocyprinus asiaticus and Anguilla marmorata are listed in the List of Key Protected Wild Animals in China. The diversity analysis showed that the Margalef richness index, Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou evenness index of Wuyishan National Park were lower than those of the neighbouring regions. The dominant species in Wuyishan National Park is Pseudocastromyzon fasciatus, and neighbouring regions is Squalidus woltersorffi. Among five rivers, the fish diversity in the Mayangxi River is the highest and the one of the Yanshan River is the lowest. The results of functional diversity showed that the function divergence and functional evenness of Wuyishan National Park were significantly higher than it’s neighbouring regions. The functional richness of the Beixi River was obviously higher than that of other rivers.

Conclusions: The relatively low fish-diversity in Wuyishan National Park might be attributed to the low heterogeneities of natural habitats in mountain areas and influences of tourists. In addition, factors that impact the fish diversity in neighbouring regions include water pollution, overfishing and water conservancy facilities. Both water pollution and overfishing could change the population structure of fish, causing pollution-resistant and small-sized fish becoming dominant in the water. The construction of hydropower stations has changed the habitats from a flowing water to still water. These hydropower stations cut the connections between upstream and downstream rivers, which led to the disappearance of spawning grounds. Therefore, the comprehensive and long-term monitoring of fish diversity in Wuyishan National Park is urgently needed to strengthen the overall protection.

Aims: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is an important ecological barrier in China. Setting nature reserves in this area can effectively protect ecological security and biodiversity. Assessing the impact of nature reserve management capacity on conservation effectiveness may facilitate scientific conservation and management of nature reserves.

Methods:This study analyzed the differences in management capacity, funding and staffing of 54 national nature reserves in the Tibetan Plateau. We studied the conservation effectiveness of different nature reserves using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which revealed the relationship between management capacity and conservation effectiveness of national nature reserves. This provided a basis for optimizing the conservation and management of nature reserves on the Tibetan Plateau.

Results: (1) The management institutions responsible for the national nature reserves on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau varied greatly on the administrative level. In general, these institutions covered four hierarchies: bureau level, division level, section level and unit level. Among these institutions, 42 were independent management and 12 were non-independent management that were co-located with other institutions. The administrative level of the institution and whether it was an independent property affect the conservation effectiveness, and the higher administrative level and independent management institutions had better conservation effectiveness. (2) Nature reserves differed greatly from the national average in terms of unit management funds, per capita management area and patrol area, and there was a general lack of professional talents among staff.

Conclusion: We recommend focusing on the special characteristics of nature reserve protection and management in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, standardizing the construction of management institutions, and strengthening financial security. We also suggest promoting more high-level professionals to engage in conservation work, further increasing the capacity of ecological management positions, and effectively improving the management capacity and conservation effectiveness of nature reserves in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Aims: The construction of a scientific and reasonable biodiversity conservation standard system plays an important role in improving the science of biodiversity conservation, enhancing the management effectiveness of management institutions and promoting the standardization of biodiversity conservation. In recent years, the documents “Opinions on Further Strengthening Biodiversity Conservation” and “National Standardization Development Outline” issued by the General Office of CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China have all put forward relevant requirements for the construction of biodiversity standard system. Thus, the construction of biodiversity conservation standard system has become an important part of biodiversity conservation work in China at present and in the future. However, current biodiversity conservation standard system in China is not perfect and can not meet the realistic needs of biodiversity conservation work. This study aims to analyze the current situation and issues of China’s biodiversity conservation standard system and propose the ideas and countermeasures for constructing biodiversity standard system to promote the standardization of biodiversity conservation in China.

Methods: Based on the three objectives of “conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and equitable and reasonable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources” established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we used the existing effective national and industrial standards as the basis for research, and focused on ecosystems, species and genes at three different levels. The list of existing biodiversity conservation standards was retrieved using relevant keywords. The list of existing biodiversity conservation standards was searched by using relevant key words to form a list of standards, and the organized list of standards was used to conduct an in-depth study on the biodiversity conservation standards system in China.

Results & Recommendations: We analyzed the research object (containing a total of 1,032 standards) and found that the current status of China’s biodiversity conservation standard system is mainly managed by industry, basically covering each major task and multiple categories, but there are still problems of lack of systematization and completeness among standards, low quality and low utilization of standard specifications, and insufficient articulation with international standards. Considering the issues of the existing biodiversity conservation standard system and focusing on the main tasks and responsibilities of biodiversity conservation, we proposed the idea of constructing a three-dimensional structural framework (containing three dimensions of industry, task and category) of China’s biodiversity standard system. Finally, we put forward relevant suggestions in four aspects: (1) preparing for the establishment of a national technical committee for biodiversity conservation standardization; (2) timely development of standard production and revision; (3) strengthening scientific and technological support, and (4) promoting the alignment of China’s standards with international standards, in order to provide reference for the construction of a more advanced and applicable standard system for biodiversity conservation.

Vascular epiphytes are abundant in tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems. Vascular epiphytes are often neglected in biodiversity surveys owing to the challenges they pose for investigators. There is no comprehensive national checklist of vascular epiphyte species in China so far. In this study, we reviewed the literature on Chinese vascular epiphytes from 1982 to 2022 and obtained the relevant information for epiphytes. We checked and corrected this information according to the data of Species 2000 China Node. Finally, we obtained the taxonomic and distribution information of 1,739 species of vascular epiphytes, belonging to 246 genera and 49 families. As the first national checklist of Chinese vascular epiphytes, this checklist can provide important data for forest biodiversity conservation, as well as the study of evolutionary biology, biogeography and macroecology, and other life science disciplines.

Aim: Historically, the United States has employed “plant hunters” to search for plants around the world for further investigation. Frank Nicholas Meyer is one of the most impactful plant hunters; he embarked on four expeditions between 1905 and 1918, introducing plants from Asia (mainly in China) and Europe. Understanding Meyer’s legacy is important to understanding how a variety of plants have been propagated and become more diverse across the globe. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to document the routes Meyer traveled and species of plants he discovered.

Methods: We conducted an extensive review of the historical archives of Meyer’s expeditions to Asia and Europe. Specifically, we focused on Meyer’s plant introduction records, scientific names of plants specimens, collection locations, and routes travelled in Asia and Europe.

Results: Meyer’s four expeditions took him to a total of 13 countries and regions (mainly in China), where he visited 65 cities in 18 provinces in China. In total, Meyer introduced 3,651 plants. Among these plants, Meyer documented 3,590 belonging to 109 families, 3,567 belonging to 392 genera, and 2,644 belonging to 665 species.

Conclusions: Meyer’s work introduced an abundance of fruits, vegetables, food crops, and ornamental plants. Meyer has had a far-reaching impact on plants throughout the world, promoting the spread of plants globally and diversifying flora in the United States. The archived documentation of his expeditions can provide basic information for future research. Meyer’s work can also serve as a blueprint to guide the conservation of plant diversity in China.

Aims: Biodiversity contributes to the most basic living environment and material conditions for human beings, and it serves as the basis for human survival and social development. But natural environmental change and over-interference of human behavior have caused a gradual loss of biodiversity. High-quality biodiversity data can facilitate biodiversity research and conservation in order to mitigate these losses. Currently, researchers have developed many biodiversity data processing tools, including workflow systems, R language packages, Python language packages, and Excel tools. However, using these software or tools require users to install the corresponding software clients and acquire certain knowledge and skills in utilizing programming languages, software development and complex Excel formulas. This all requires a high learning cost and usage threshold, rendering these tools inaccessible for some user. For this reason, this paper aims to describe a Chinese biodiversity online data processing platform (CBODPP) to aid researchers in achieving a zero code and a low usage threshold for biodiversity data processing work.

Methods: The CBODPP is designed in Browser/Server mode and implemented using a web-based client. The platform pages are developed based on reactive development technology, which is compatible with both computer and mobile browsers. The platform realizes service functions such as scientific name correction, geographic location analysis and inverse geocoding based on web crawler technology, data processing technology and Solr intelligent search technology. In addition, the platform has also developed corresponding data processing modules for biodiversity data of different dimensions. Users can process data in a specified column field individually, thus ensuring a high flexibility of data processing when utilizing this platform.

Results: In order to process biodiversity data, users do not need to install a workflow management system and create workflows, nor do they need to master complexcoding language such as Python or R. By accessing the CBODPP (http://dp.iflora.cn/), biodiversity data such as species name, geographical location, time, date, longitude and latitude can be processed online in a visual manner. In addition, the data processing platform also provides auxiliary functions such as data format conversion, data quality evaluation and resource statistical analysis.

Conclusion: The CBODPP can aid scientific researchers in processing biodiversity data with zero code and a low threshold, providing researchers with a convenient, efficient and simple data processing platform for data cleaning, correction, conversion and integration. Because of this, it provides support for a wide range of scientists in the field of biodiversity informatics, allowing researchers to focus more on scientific research in specialized areas of biodiversity rather than on software work learning to utilize software.

Background & Aim: Habitat loss and fragmentation, driven by expansion of global transport infrastructure networks, has become one of the significant factors contributing to the decline of biodiversity. Many studies on the impact of roads on wildlife have been conducted abroad, yet only a modest number of studies have been conducted in China.

Summary: This review summarizes 144 case studies conducted in China by the year 2021 and 210 posts relating to roadkill from Sina Microblog. The impacts of roads on wildlife in China were divided into seven types: habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, avoid or gather at the roadside, hinder or promote migration, population isolation, wildlife crossing structures and roadkill. Recent, relevant studies in China are mainly concentrated in Hoh Xil, Changbai Mountains, and Qinling Mountains. The main species studied are ungulates on Tibetan Plateau, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus).

Perspectives: Collecting data on the impacts of roads on wildlife, is critical to inform interdisciplinary and multi-departmental management and conservation solutions of road-wildlife conflicts in China. Social media platforms can be important sources of data on roadkill occurrences.

Background: About 60.3% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses, of which, 71.8% originate in wildlife. Wildlife can act as partial reservoirs of disease or pathogens, or pose an unknown biosecurity threat to humans and livestock. While China currently has a robust surveillance and testing system for some infectious diseases, and relevant laws, regulations and management are increasingly being improved, surveillance of wildlife epidemics is still relatively weak. According to the One Health framework, effective surveillance of wildlife and the implementation of corresponding control measures can not only reduce large-scale epidemics of zoonoses, but also can safeguard the health of wildlife populations.

Method: This study presents the characteristics of an effective wildlife surveillance system through comparative analysis of international cases, and at the same time, through research and analysis of the existing surveillance system in China, assisted with stakeholder interviews and field surveys, proposes key measures to improve the existing system.

Suggestions: (1) Promoting resource sharing among different government departments and improve the capacity of the national epidemic surveillance system to respond to interdisciplinary and cross-sector issues; (2) Establishing key surveillance and response mechanisms in areas where humans and livestock are in frequent contact with wildlife; (3) increasing the emphasis on science and technology, including the establishment of wildlife disease reference laboratories, enhancing the technical capacity of relevant staff, etc., to establish scientific monitoring programs and detection methods; (4) establishing a reporting system based on the public and existing monitoring resources to enhance public participation and information transparency of wildlife disease monitoring.

Background: Historically, it was believed that birds had a weak sense of smell or a lack thereof. Currently, the evidence of avian olfaction has been confirmed in several fields, such as anatomy, electrophysiology, molecular biology, and behavioural ecology. In this paper, we conducted a review of recent research progress on olfactory communication in social behaviours of birds.

Results:Our literature review found evidence of olfactory communication in birds from 14 orders and 33 families. Olfaction may play an important role in functions such as foraging, navigation, defence, crypsis, vigilance, and social interactions. Focusing on the role of olfactory communication in the social behaviors of birds, we presented key results from relevant studies in the last decade and reviewed the potential roles played by avian olfaction in species and individual recognition, breeding behaviors, kin recognition, mate choice, and competition.

Conclusions: Innovations in research methods and integrative approaches are urgently needed. Combining molecular biology, anatomy, physiology, ethology, and neurobiology may comprehensively reveal the complex mechanisms and social functions of avian olfactory communication.