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Table of Content
    Volume 31 Issue 10
    20 October 2023

    The pictures show some representative new species/new record described in 2022 (left to right, top to bottom): Diploderma xinlongense, Impatiens chenmoui, Raveniola jundaiTarsiger albocoeruleus, Microhyla dabieshanensis, Athyrium aberrans, Ethmia afracta, Systenus jinxiuensis, Gobiobotia lii, Oxycetonia jucunda, Budorcas taxicolor, Cortinarius pseudocamphoratus. (Photograph credit: Meihua Zhang, Xiaochen Li, Kun Yu, Guoming Zhang, Baowei Zhang, Liang Zhang, Xiaoju Zhu, Chen Lin, Xiao Chen, Zhehao Tian, Zhixin Wen, Mengle Xie)

      
    Special Feature: 2022 New Taxa Collection
    Global new taxa of vascular plants published in 2022
    Xia Wan, Libing Zhang
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23162.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023162
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    Aims: Several thousands of new vascular plant taxa have been discovered and described every year in the past 20 years. Timely analysis of the published data of new vascular plant taxa can show the research hotspots of vascular plant taxonomy in details and provide reference data for studies of related fields such as botany, ecology, and conservation science.

    Methods: The data of global new taxa of vascular plants were derived from the IPNI (https://www.ipni.org/), Tropicos (https://www.tropicos.org/), WCSP (https://wcsp.science.kew.org/), and WFO (http://www.worldfloraonline.org/). Statistics of new taxa of vascular plants published in 2022 were available as of April 17, 2023 excluding new combinations, new statuses or new names and bryophyte data.

    Results: In 2022, at least 2,482 new taxa of vascular plants (based on data available as of April 17, 2023; the final number will increase ca. 20% to ca. 3,000) were described worldwide, including 3 new subfamily, 19 new tribes, 11 new subtribes, 80 new genera, 7 new subgenera, 1 new supersection, 51 new sections, 16 new subsections, 4 new series, 2,160 new species, 44 new subspecies, 65 new varieties, and 21 new forms. These new taxa belong to 174 families and 905 genera, among which Orchidaceae, Araceae, and Asteraceae had received more attentions. The 2,482 new taxa of vascular plants were described worldwide in 166 journals and 15 books by 2,016 scholars, of which 53 authors published more than 10 new taxa. The number of new taxa described in 2022 was about 12% increase in comparison with that in 2021. Phytotaxa and PhytoKeys were the top two journals in terms of the numbers of new taxa of vascular plants published in 2022 and published 556 and 193 new taxa, respectively. Among the 2,290 new species and infraspecific taxa, 2,195 belonged to angiosperms, 86 to lycophytes and pteridophytes, and only 9 to gymnosperms, among which Orchidaceae were the most, with 268. The 2,290 new species and infraspecific taxa were from 110 countries and regions. Asia and South America were the hotspots of discoveries of new species and infraspecific taxa, with 874 and 577, respectively. By country, China, Brazil, and Australia were the top three with the most new species and infraspecific taxa discovered in 2022, with 337, 256, and 130, respectively.

    2022 annual report on new taxa and nomenclatural changes of Chinese plants
    Cheng Du, Jun Liu, Wen Ye, Shuai Liao
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23244.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023244
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    Aim: Plant species names undergo revisions and changes in response to deepening taxonomic research deepens and new discoveries. These valuable diverse pieces of information are scattered across various publications, requires necessitate timely consolidation into the Species Catalogue of China, under the guidance of taxonomic experts. To address this requirement, it is necessary to create a dataset containing information on new taxa, name changes, and the latest statuses of plants in China.

    Methods: We collected data on newly discovered taxa and name changes for Chinese higher plants by reviewing 228 journals and monographs. This compilation involved 403 articles from 62 journals and 1 monograph, focusing on the new taxa and nomenclatural changes of higher plants in 2022.

    Results: In 2022, China reported a total of 318 new taxa of higher plants, encompassing 12 new genera, 286 new species, 3 new subspecies, 10 new varieties, and 7 new forms. The recently described species fall into bryophytes (15 taxa), pteridophytes (28 species), gymnosperm (1 species), and angiosperms (362 taxa). Notably, 155 newly identified species have been published with detailed evidence covering molecular systematics, chromosomes, micromorphology, genome, etc. Among these, 92 species were considered as threatened according to IUCN standards. The majority of these discoveries originate from five southwestern provinces in China, namely Yunnan, Sichuan, Xizang, Guangxi, and Guizhou. Medog, a county-level unit, recorded the highest number of newly discovered species in 2022. Furthermore, 122 new combinations and 11 replacement names were transferred from other species. Additionally, 103 names were designated as synonyms for 76 taxa, while 4 names were re-accepted.

    Conclusion: In 2022, China witnessed a net increase of 346 new taxa of higher plants, accounting for 0.89% of the total Chinese plant species. Additionally, 240 names of higher plants underwent changes, accounting for 0.62% of the total. These changes represented 1.5% of all Chinese plant names modified in 2022, encompassing both species additions and nomenclature treatments.

    New vertebrate species discovered in China in 2022
    Jianping Jiang, Bo Cai, Bin Wang, Weitao Chen, Zhixin Wen, Dezhi Zhang, Lulu Sui, Shun Ma
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23241.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023241
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    Aim: To collate and report new vertebrate species discovered in China in 2022.

    Methods: This paper summarizes the basic information on vertebrate species discoveries published in 2022, including 87 papers and 1 annual report of bird watching in China (http://www.birdreport.cn/).

    Results: In 2022, 120 vertebrate species were discovered in China, including 98 species new to science, 17 species not previously reported in China, and 5 valid species upgraded from subspecies. These species belong to 17 orders, 43 families, and 71 genera. Among them are 30 new species of fishes; 44 species of amphibians, including 34 new species and 10 newly recorded in China; 26 species of reptiles, including 21 new species and 3 newly recorded in China, and 2 species upgraded from subspecies; 6 species of birds, including 1 new species, 3 newly recorded in China, and 2 species upgraded from subspecies; 14 species of mammals, including 12 new species, 1 newly recorded in China and 1 species upgraded from subspecies. Cold-blooded vertebrates account for 83% of new species discoveries; most of the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals were species of Cypriniformes, Anura, Squamata, and Rodentia, with 22, 37, 25, and 11 species, respectively. These 120 newly discovered vertebrates were recorded in 26 provincial regions. Of these species, 106 were only recorded in one provincial region. A total of 97 of these species have been supported by molecular systematics. There were 111 species described by Chinese scholars; 105 species were published in journals, and 19 species of these were published in three English journals in China.

    Conclusion: This work provides important basic information for the classification and protection of vertebrates in China. In addition, it also indicates that cold-blooded vertebrates are the key group of the vertebrate species diversity research in China, and that an integrated classification approach is essential to support future taxonomic studies.

    New taxa of extant Hymenoptera in 2022
    Huanxi Cao, Wen Jiang, Bolormaa Ganbaatar, Dan Zhang, Qingsong Zhou, Zhulidezi Aishan, Xu Wang, Pu Tang, Arong Luo, Zeqing Niu, Yanzhou Zhang, Hui Xiao, Chaodong Zhu
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23223.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023223
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    Aim: The order Hymenoptera has rich biodiversity and provides essential ecosystem services. This study aims to catalogue and summarize new taxa of extant Hymenoptera based on published works in 2022.

    Methods: We obtained and analyzed a total of 360 journal publications on the new taxa of extant Hymenoptera in 2022 by researching the available zoological databases.

    Results: Across 360 journal articles, 1,698 new taxa were identified, comprising 7 subfamilies, 53 new genera, 25 new subgenera, 808 new species, 6 new subspecies, 334 new synonyms, 241 new combinations, 76 new status, 14 new names, 5 revived synonyms, 71 revived combinations, 1 revived name and 57 revived status, spanning across 17 superfamilies, 77 families, and 446 genera. The superfamilies Apoidea, Ichneumonoidea, and Vespoidea displayed the highest number of new species, accounting for approximately 25.9% (209/808), 21.0% (170/808) and 18.1% (146/808) of the total new species, respectively. In 2022, 71 journal articles were published detailing newly classified extant Hymenoptera taxa in China, comprising 165 new taxa. These include 5 new genera, 126 new species, as well as 4 newly recorded genera and 30 newly recorded species, spanning across 13 superfamilies, 31 families, and 83 genera. Notably, the superfamilies Ichneumonoidea, Tenthredinoidea, and Chalcidoidea accounted for the highest number of new species in Chinese extant Hymenoptera, contributing approximately 20.6% (26/126), 19.0% (24/126) and 17.5% (22/126) of the overall new Chinese species total, respectively. Globally, Asia accounted for the highest number of newly described species, approximately 55.9% (452/808), with East Asia leading the count at approximately 20.7% (167/808) of new species. At the national and regional administrative level, China contributed the highest number of new species, approximately 15.6% (126/808) of the total. Of the 360 articles published in 85 journals on the newly classified taxa of extant Hymenoptera, 353 were in English, 5 were in Chinese, 1 in French and 1 in Spainish. Among those, 314 articles from 79 journals reported the newly described species. In 2022, a total of 412 scholars contributed to naming Hymenoptera new species, with 76 scholars (18.4%) from China. Worldwide, 167 institutions preserved the holotypes of newly described Hymenoptera species, with 19 of them located in China, representing approximately 11.4% of the total.

    Conclusion: These results indicate that China plays a key positive role in the global taxonomy of Hymenoptera.

    Annual report of new taxa for Chinese Lepidoptera in 2022
    Xiuying Zhang, Subinur Eli, Houhun Li
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23283.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023283
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    Aim: Lepidoptera has high diversity and economic importance. Many species are pests, and some are beneficial or have high ornamental value. China has a large area, spanning the Palearctic and the Oriental regions. The biota is complex and diverse, and many new species are found and described every year. The aim of this study is to summarize the new taxa of Lepidoptera recorded from China in 2022.

    Methods: Information regarding new species, new synonyms, new combinations, and new record species for China were from related taxonomic journals. The scientific names and the type localities of the new species as well as other relevant information were sorted out based on a total of 98 articles. The new taxa of the Chinese Lepidoptera published by domestic and foreign researchers in 2022 were summarized.

    Results: A total of 238 new taxa were recorded, including 8 new genera and 1 subgenus, 214 new species and 15 new subspecies. Five new record genera, 76 new record species (including 5 subspecies) and 28 new combinations were reported in China. Twenty-six new synonyms were proposed, 4 species were downgraded to subspecies, and 5 subspecies were upgraded to species. A total of 229 new species and subspecies belong to 103 genera of 27 families in Lepidoptera, of which 127 new species belong to Microlepidoptera, 86 new species belong to Macrolepidoptera, and 3 new species and 13 new subspecies are butterflies.

    Conclusions: The number of new species and new record species of Lepidoptera distributed in Yunnan Province in 2022 was still significantly higher than that in other regions of China, accounting for 24.02% and 55.26% of the total published species in China, respectively. All the data show that the published new species and new record species collected from southern China in 2022 are still significantly higher than those collected from northern China.

    New taxa of Diptera from China in 2022
    Chen Lin, Xiaodong Cai, Liang Wang, Bing Zhang, Qicheng Yang, Yanling Wu, Ding Yang
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23245.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023245
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    Aims: The aim of this study is to summarize the new Diptera taxa from China published in 2022.

    Methods: In this study, 75 journal publications on new Diptera taxa in 2022 from China were systematically collected and analyzed.

    Results: In 2022, a total of 176 new taxa of Diptera from China were published, including 3 new genera and 173 new species, and 46 new taxa were newly recorded from China, including 2 subfamilies, 8 genera, 1 subgenus and 35 species. Additionally, 10 new synonyms and 1 new replacement names were proposed. Families with highest number of newly described species including Empididae, Tachinidae, Chironomidae, Drosophilidae and Phoridae account for 46% of all Diptera. Twenty-seven Chinese provincial-level administration areas contributed to new taxa and records. The number of new species from Yunnan was significantly higher than that in other regions, accounting for 1/3 of the total number of new species published in China. The number of newly recorded species in northern China is higher than that in southern China.

    Conclusion: In 2022, some progress has been made in the field of Diptera in China, while the research areas and groups are still uneven, and more attention and support are needed in the future.

    The world new taxa for extant Coleoptera in 2022
    Xuan Zhou, Yiping Luo, Zi Jin, Yuqing Qiao, Yiyao Zhang, Lulu Li, Yuanyuan Lu, Ning Liu, Meike Liu, Ming Bai
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23202.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023202
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    Aims: The aim of this paper is to summarize the world new taxa of extant Coleoptera in 2022, and to sort out the new species and new records in China separately.

    Methods: By searching the relevant databases and related taxonomic journals, with the help of peer experts, 857 journal publications and 1 monograph were obtained and analyzed.

    Results: In 2022, a total of 2,810 new taxa of extant Coleoptera globally, including 1 new subfamily, 2 new tribes, 3 new subtribes, 144 new genera, 48 new subgenera, 2,570 new species, and 42 new subspecies were observed. Additionally, 620 new combinations, 457 new synonyms, 39 upgradations, and 12 degradations were proposed. As China is the most biodiverse countries in the world of these new taxa, 8 new genera, 7 new subgenera, 480 new species, 9 new subspecies, 11 newly recorded genera, 1 newly recorded subgenus, 87 newly recorded species, and 1 newly recorded subspecies were recorded in China.

    Conclusion: Yunnan and Xizang are hot regions for new species (subspecies) discovery in China, accounting for about 46% of the total published new species (subspecies). The new taxa for extant Coleoptera in 2022 is lower than it was in 2021, globally.

    New taxa of spiders (Araneae) from the world in 2022
    Ruihan Yang, Meichen Yan, Ludan Zhang, Hongxin Liu, Joseph KH Koh, Qiaoqiao He, Zhiyuan Yao
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23175.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023175
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    Aim: Notwithstanding talk of a “taxonomic impediment” over the past 30 years, the exponential growth in the global number of newly described spider species during the 1975-2000 period has continued unabated. This paper focuses on the advances in taxonomic studies of spiders in 2022 worldwide, with detailed statistical analyses of new taxa, type localities, arachnologists driving such research, and journals publishing their work.

    Progress: A total of 1,177 new taxa (including species in amber) were described in 2022, comprising 81 new genera and 1,096 new species. They belong to 74 families, with type localities spanning across 97 countries and jurisdictions. The new taxa were documented by 340 arachnologists in 289 papers, published separately in 60 journals. Out of these 289 papers, 23 or 8% comprised monographs, regional studies, and revisions of selected higher taxa (at family and genus levels). The proportion of papers incorporating DNA analyses made up 18.3% (totaling 53 papers). China is the country with the highest number of new species discovered, a total of 362, accounting for 33.0% of the global tally. With as many as 75 arachnologists naming new spider taxa, China becomes the country with the highest number of publishing spider taxonomists, accounting for 22.1% of the world’s total. Among them, the most prolific arachnologist is Shuqiang Li who described a total of 194 new taxa, accounting for 16.5% of the new taxa described in 2022 worldwide. Altogether, Li and his remaining 74 Chinese colleagues described a total of 436 new taxa, comprising 26 new genera and 410 new species belonging to 50 families, from China, Myanmar, and eight other countries and jurisdictions. These new taxa described by Chinese arachnologists made up 37.0% of the 2022 global aggregate, an improvement over the Chinese output 2021 (33.8%) and during the 2016-2020 period (28.1% on average).

    Annual review on nomenclature novelties of fungi in the world (2022)
    Ke Wang, Lei Cai
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23176.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023176
    Abstract ( 426 )   HTML ( 32 )   PDF (2095KB) ( 367 )   Supplementary Material   Save
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    Aims: The compilation of authoritative biodiversity catalogs is of great significance for biodiversity research, resource protection, as well as social and economic development. In the era of rapid development and progress on scientific research, a large number of new species and new distribution records are reported every year. It is very important to summarize the discoveries of new taxa and update the species checklist in time.

    Methods: The taxonomic data of newly published fungal names were retrieved and analyzed from the Fungal Names nomenclatural repository.

    Results: In 2022, 1,948 scholars have published 4,679 new fungal names all over the world, including 4 new orders, 25 new families, 271 new genera and subgenera, 2,782 new species and intraspecific taxa, 1,433 new combinations, 16 replacement names and 148 invalid or illegitimate names. These new names belonged to 3 kingdoms, namely Fungi, Chromista and Protozoa, 12 phyla, 38 classes, 139 orders, 407 families and 1,205 genera, among which micro-ascomycetes and agaricomycetes have received more attentions. The newly published 2,664 fungal species were discovered from 103 countries and regions in the world. East and southeast Asia were the hottest spots of new species discovery, while China retained the top country for yearly new species discoveries (1,102 species), accounting for 41.37% of the world’s total. Besides, Chinese scholars led the world in research outputs on fungal taxonomy this year. There were 519 Chinese scholars participated in the publications of 1,814 new fungal names, contributing nearly 40% of the world’s total.

    Conclusion: After a slight decline in 2021, the number of globally published new fungal names has rebounded to more than 4,500. Although cross-regional communication and collection have been reduced, scholars paid more attention to mining domestic and local resources. For the contribution of Chinese scholars, they have participated in 40% of the taxonomic outputs in 2022, which has significantly increased than last year. With the rapid development of fungal taxonomy, it is equally important to improve the quality of taxonomic research. It is suggested that the new authors should pay more attention to learning and understanding of the nomenclature code to avoid publication of invalid or illegal names.

    Original Papers: Plant Diversity
    The ecological uniqueness of plant communities and their determinants across the temperate deserts of China
    Jianming Wang, Xun Lei, Yiming Feng, Bo Wu, Qi Lu, Nianpeng He, Jingwen Li
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23144.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023144
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    Aims: Overall beta diversity can be partitioned into the relative contributions of its individual sampling units, which represent comparative indicators of the ecological uniqueness of each local community within the sampling units. Temperate desert ecosystems are widely distributed primarily in arid and extremely arid regions and are especially sensitive to influence by climate change and human activities. However, distribution patterns of unique desert plant ecologies and their determining factors have yet to be studied extensively, which has hindered our understanding of mechanism for maintaining desert biodiversity in these regions. Therefore, this study aims to explore the ecological uniqueness of plant communities and identify their determinants in temperate deserts of China.

    Methods: In this study, we selected 948 plots (10 m × 10 m) at 316 sites in the temperate deserts of China. We computed beta diversity as the total variation within the community data and used a plotting-based approach to determine if ecological uniqueness is related to the local environmental conditions and/or community characteristics. Stepwise multiple regressions and variation partitioning analyses were performed to further infer the mechanisms driving the geographic patterns of desert plant ecological uniqueness.

    Results: The ecological uniqueness of desert plants exhibited significant variations based on longitudinal, latitudinal, and elevational patterns. Plant ecological uniqueness significantly decreased with longitude but displayed a U-shaped relationship with latitude and elevation. In addition, we observed a U-shaped relationship between plant ecological uniqueness and plant species richness. The soil, climate, and community characteristics (i.e., plant species richness and community coverage) significantly influenced the ecological uniqueness of plant communities. Longitude, soil, climate, and community characteristics taken together explained 33.5% of the total variation in the ecological uniqueness of plant communities. In addition, climatic factors demonstrated a more significant influence on the ecological uniqueness of the plant communities when compared to the soil and community characteristics.

    Conclusions: Taken together, we propose that the ecological uniqueness of desert plant communities is regulated by environment filtering, neutral processes, and other unknown processes, where the soil and climate are primary drivers of uniqueness.

    Original Papers: Animal Diversity
    The illegal trade network of pangolin meat in Chinese mainland and its implications for the implementation of key interventions
    Fuhua Zhang, Fei Xi, Xinrui Tang, Peng Cen, Shibao Wu
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23079.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023079
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    Background & Aim: China is one of the main consumption areas of pangolin (Manis spp.) meat and scales. In order to promote the conservation of this taxonomic group, differentiated and precise protection measures based on the illegal trade and consumption characteristics of various pangolin products are essential. However, there is a lack of research on the illegal trade and consumption characteristics of pangolin meat or scales separately.

    Methods: This study uses the key word “pangolin” to compile the illegal trade cases of pangolin meat reported on the China Judgements Online and network media before January 11, 2022. We then use these reports to assess the characteristics of the region, trade network and trade methods.

    Results: We found that pangolin meat trade and consumption mainly occured in southern China. This meat was mainly imported from Southeast Asia, though a small amount may come from seized area in China. The primary land access points for illegal pangolin meat trade into Chinese mainland are Fangchenggang, Baoshan and Dehong, while ports and small wharves in Guangdong and Fujian are the main sea access areas. Fangchenggang, Guangzhou, and Kunming are the key cities in the illegal pangolin trade network in Chinese mainland. The validity of these results may be affected by the incomplete inclusion of corresponding cases on the judicial documents website before 2013 and biases present the older reported cases on the internet.

    Suggestions: Based on the results presented here, we suggest enhancing the inspection of border ports in Guangxi and Yunnan and wharves in Guangdong and Fujian, China. Measures such as improving the outbound vehicle inspection rate in Fangchenggang, Guangzhou, Baoshan, and Dehong and adopting differentiated public education on pangolin protection in Southern and Northern China. While it is important to continue to call on Southeast Asian countries to strengthen wildlife protection legislation, law enforcement and public education measures are considered effective additional means of curbing the illegal trade and consumption of pangolin meat in China.

    Spatial differentiation of fish functional groups in the Yangtze River
    Anlun Wang, Ping He, Xinyuan Long
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23095.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023095
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    Aim: The composition of fish in large rivers exhibits longitudinal variation along the river influenced by environmental gradients. The River Continuum Concept revolutionized the understanding of river ecosystems by linking changes in river macro-invertebrate trophic functional groups to the differentiation of nutrient sources between upstream and downstream areas. The concept offers a novel framework for studying the distribution patterns of river biomes at large scale, from upstream to downstream. In this study, a dataset encompassing 168 species of fish were used, covering the entire range from Zhimenda, the starting point of the Jinsha River, to the estuary. Functional groups were first classified based on criteria such as body sizes, shapes, feeding habits, and life-history strategies. Subsequently, their distribution patterns as well as their adaptability to environmental factors were investigated across different scales.

    Methods: A total of 14 functional groups and 59 combined function groups were classified, and 5 environmental factors were selected: elevation, mean temperature, mean annual temperature range, river width and river slope gradient. The distribution pattern of fish functional groups was analyzed using hierarchical clustering, while ordination analysis was applied to analyze the relationship between environmental factors and fish functional groups at different scales.

    Results: The results revealed a primary and secondary differentiation in the distribution of fish functional groups within the Yangtze River: the primary differentiation occurs at Longkaikou, acting as the dividing point, while the secondary differentiation is observed at Shigu, Longkaikou and Downstream of Baihetan Dam. Moving from the upstream to the downstream, fish body sizes transition from small to medium and large, body shapes shift from predominantly fusiform and cylindrical to include compressform appearances. Feeding habits evolve from primarily omnivorous to encompass a more diverse range of feeding functional groups, and life-history strategies transform from opportunistic to periodic and equilibrium strategies. The distribution pattern of fish functional groups is a result of adaptation to spatial differentiation of environmental factors at different scales. Across the larger scale of the entire Yangze River, elevation and temperature, which are associated with climatic features, serve as dominant factors; whereas, as the spatial scale of the study shrinks, the influence of river slope drop associated with topographic features, becomes more prominent and plays the most important role in the I-1 river section at medium scale.

    Conclusion: The distribution pattern of fish functional groups is direct outcome of the fish adaptation to environmental differentiation. Furthermore, the specific environment factors that determine the distribution of fish functional groups vary at different scales, consequently affecting the corresponding functional traits of the fish. This study contributes to our understanding of the river continuum theory, the spatial distribution pattern of fish in the Yangtze River, and the environmental adaptation characteristics of fishes.

    Characteristics and vertical distribution of insect functional groups along an altitude gradient in Guandi Mountains
    Ruihe Gao, Shiming Fan, Jianghai Dong, Rongjiao Li, Zhiwei Zhang
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23152.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023152
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    Aims: The study aimed to clarify the variation characteristics of insect functional groups and the effects of environmental factors on their spatial distribution patterns along the altitude gradient of Guandi Mountains.

    Methods: Seven typical plots with varying altitude ranging from 1,600 m to 2,800 m were established across Guandi Mountains. Insect communities across different altitude gradient were selected as the research objects. Insect specimens were collected between July and August in both 2020 and 2021 using sweeping net method and pitfall traps. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the differences in insect species diversity and functional groups at different altitudes. Three-dimensional principal component analysis and Jaccard similarity index were applied to assess the similarity of insect functional groups at different altitudes. Pearson correlation coefficient analysis and redundancy analysis were used to clarify the influence of environmental factors on the spatial distribution patterns of insect community functional groups.

    Results: The results revealed a total of 9,321 insects, encompassing 11 orders, 89 families, and 198 species, across the altitudinal gradient of Guandi Mountains. The insect functional groups showed obvious differentiation characteristics along the altitude gradient. The altitudinal gradient can also significantly contribute to the differentiation in insect diversity, potentially due to the habitat heterogeneity includes communities across plots at different altitudes ranged from 0.13 to 0.41, indicating varying degrees of dissimilarity. Furthermore, all the 19 environmental factors selected in this study exhibited an effect on the spatial distribution of insect functional groups, with environmental temperature and soil P/N ratio emerging as the most important factors.

    Conclusion: The diversity of insect communities and their functional groups distinctly vary along the altitude gradient. Notably, environmental temperature and soil P/N are the most important environmental factors dictating the spatial distribution pattern of insect functional groups.

    Bioinventories
    Additions to the seed plant flora in Yunnan, China
    Hongbo Ding, Liyan Wang, Dongli Quan, Bin Yang, Mamai Yue, Pingyuan Wang, Yongjingwen Yang, Qiangbang Gong, Shishun Zhou, Li Wang, Jianwu Li, Yunhong Tan
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23254.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023254
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    Aim: The study aims to better understand plant diversity in the border areas of Yunnan. These border areas have relatively intact forest ecosystems but are poorly explored.

    Methods: In this study, plants were collected and photographed through intensive field investigation, made into specimens, sorted and identified. The voucher specimens for each recorded species were deposited in the Herbarium of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of Chinese Academy of Sciences (HITBC), Herbarium of Institute of Botany of Chinese Academy of Sciences (PE), Herbarium of Kunming Institute of Botany of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KUN) and Herbarium of Xiamen University (AU).

    Results: One new record family, namely Aptandraceae (Anacolosa griffithii), two new record genera, namely Pottingeria (P. acuminata), Cordisepalum (C. phalanthopetalum), thirty new record species, namely Phlogacanthus gomezii, Staurogyne shanica, Hydnocarpus macrocarpus, Alphonsea ventricosa, Huberantha jenkinsii, Miliusa chantaburiana, M. dioeca, Impatiens andersonii, Garcinia lanceifolia, Dillenia parviflora, Parashorea buchananii, Castanopsis birmanica, Heritiera burmensis, Phrynium pubinerve, Bulbophyllum obrienianum, B. sinhoense, Dendrobium dantaniense, D. parcum, Epipactis flava, Eulophia macrobulbon, Micropera mannii, Vanilla borneensis, Phyllanthus discofractus, P. mirabilis, Maesa tomentella, Sabia wardii, Ailanthus integrifolia subsp. calycina, Wikstroemia floribunda, Hedychium gardnerianum, Monolophus linearis, were reported for the flora of China.

    Conclusion: The border area of Yunnan possesses one of the richest floras in China, but the floristic survey in this area is still inadequate. Therefore, intensive floristic surveys are needed to be strengthened in the future to obtain reliable information on the flora of the border areas of Yunnan.

    Species diversity and resource evaluation of macrofungi in Beijing
    Weiqi Xu, Yue Li, Haijiao Li, Dongmei Liu, Ning Yang, Qi Zhang, Shuanghui He
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23196.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023196
    Abstract ( 534 )   HTML ( 20 )   PDF (3734KB) ( 531 )   Supplementary Material   Save
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    Aims: As the main component of ecosystem, macrofungi have important ecological functions and economic values. In this study, we aim to understand the species diversity, compositions, and resources of macrofungi in Beijing by performing comprehensive investigations, identifications, and analyses.

    Methods: The macrofungal investigations were carried out in 2020-2022 by using line transect and random sampling methods. Specimens were identified by using morphological and molecular methods, and the complete list of macrofungi in Beijing was obtained based on both identification results and literature surveys. Species composition analyses, floristic geographical component analyses and resource evaluations were carried out based on the list by using statistical methods and literature surveying.

    Results: A total of 5,448 specimens were collected, and 608 species were identified. The complete list of macrofungi in Beijing containing 619 species belong to 277 genera, 93 families, 22 orders, 6 classes, 2 phyla. Among all the species, 24 belong to Ascomycota, 595 belong to Basidiomycota, five were records new to China, 120 were new to Beijing. There were 19 dominant families with more than 10 species, accounting for 59.61% of the total species, including Agaricaceae, Polyporaceae, Psathyrellaceae, Russulaceae, Tricholomataceae, and so on. There were 33 dominant genera with more than 5 species, accounting for 38.13% of the total species, including Cortinarius, Gymnopus, Inocybe, Leucoagaricus, Russula, and so on. Cosmopolitan, north temperate, and pantropical genera accounted for 61.37%, 31.05%, and 5.42%, respectively. There were 71 edible, 43 medicinal, 22 poisonous, 45 both edible and medicinal fungi.

    Conclusion: The species diversity of macrofungi in Beijing is high, and the economic resources are rich. The geographical composition of the flora reflects typical north temperate distribution characteristics. The species number of macrofungi in Beijing could be increased in the future since some large genera of mushrooms, such as, Cortinarius, Entoloma, Inocybe, Russula have not been sufficiently studied.

    Data Paper
    A dataset describing the community characteristics and geographic distribution of Krascheninnikovia compacta
    Jiahe Cui, Zhiyong Li, Yuchi Wang, Qiang Sun, Na Sha, Zijing Li, Yantao Wu, Yabo Shi, Ying Han, Mingle Li, Lixin Wang, Liqing Zhao, Cunzhu Liang
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23172.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023172
    Abstract ( 304 )   HTML ( 22 )   PDF (504KB) ( 213 )   Save
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    The Krascheninnikovia compacta community is primarily distributed in extremely cold and arid high-altitude environments typically inaccessible to humans. It represents the most common and widely distributed type of vegetation in the alpine deserts of the Qingzang Plateau. Most investigations into this community take the form of qualitative descriptions, which fail to provide precious sample data. In order to generate a community dataset of K. compacta, this paper recorded and organized the spatial distribution, community characteristics and structure, and climate characteristics of this species based on field survey data collected in 2018, 2019, and 2022, along with a description of the relevant literature. The results showed that: (1) Krascheninnikovia compacta community was mainly found in the Central Kunlun Mountains of the Qingzang Plateau, the Northern Tianshan Mountains, the Altun Mountains, and the Dangjin Mountains Pass. (2) Krascheninnikovia compacta community had the relatively low values in community height, coverage, biomass and species richness. Our study identified 29 species of seed plants belonging to 11 families and 22 genera distributed among 22 typical plots. Hemicryptophytes were the dominant life form, with a total of 18 species, which accounted for 62.07% of all plants and primarily consisted of perennial grasses and perennial weeds. (3) The community structure was relatively simple due to only K. compacta having a consistent presence of more than 50% of all species. There were several subdominant species but mostly companion species and occasional species (93.10%) residing in the shrub layer and herb layer. (4) The vertical structure of the community can be divided into two layers. The first layer consists of a sparse cushioned small semi-shrub dominated by K. compacta, and the second layer consists of a sparse herb layer. (5) The growth environment of this community was characterized by a cold climate and little precipitation that is concentrated in the warmest quarter of the alpine desert climate. This dataset is the only known dataset describing the K. compacta community in China. It represents a valuable resource for studying the species composition and structure of the K. compacta community. The information regarding the geographic climate and community species in the dataset provides basic data for future investigation of Krascheninnikovia compacta community and compilation of Vegegraphy of China.

    Database/Dataset Profile

    Title A dataset describing the community characteristics and geographic distribution of Krascheninnikovia compacta
    Authors Jiahe Cui, Zhiyong Li, Yuchi Wang, Qiang Sun, Na Sha, Zijing Li, Yantao Wu, Yabo Shi, Ying Han, Mingle Li, Lixin Wang, Liqing Zhao, Cunzhu Liang
    Corresponding author Cunzhu Liang (bilcz@imu.edu.cn)
    Time range 2018-2022
    Geographical scope Xizang, Xinjiang, Gansu
    File size 909.64 MB
    Data format *.zip
    Data link https://www.scidb.cn/s/niIZFf
    https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.13467
    https://www.biodiversity-science.net/fileup/1005-0094/DATA/2023172.zip
    Database/Dataset composition This dataset consists of two files. File 1: A quadrat photo dataset of Krascheninnikovia compacta community, which is divided into 14 subfiles according to the survey plots. Each subfile includes quadrat photos, environment photos, and sample description of plot. It contains 97 quadrat photos and 14 quadrat descriptions in total. All subfiles are named after plot number and photos are named after plot-quadrat-replicate. File 2: A dataset describing the community characteristics and geographic distribution of Krascheninnikovia compacta, which contains 3 work sheets: 1. Geographic and climatic information of the community plots; 2. Survey data of plots; 3. Species diversity information of the community.
    Reviews
    Research progress on whole-genome resequencing in Brassica
    Rui Luo, Ya Chen, Hanma Zhang
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23237.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023237
    Abstract ( 285 )   HTML ( 16 )   PDF (433KB) ( 265 )   Save
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    Background: Brassica contains a variety of economically important crops. In recent years, with the rapid development of DNA sequencing technology and the continuous reduction of sequencing costs, whole-genome resequencing has become an important tool for Brassica research.

    Main contents: This paper briefly introduces the current status of whole-genome sequencing in Brassica plants and some important progresses made in using whole-genome resequencing technology to study the domestication origin, environmental adaptations and the molecular basis of important traits of Brassica plants, including the fully sequenced 8 Brassica plant genomes, the use of the whole-genome resequencing technology in studying the domestication origin and relationship of Brassica oleracea, B. rapa, B. nigra and other Brassica species, and the identification of genes related to the adaptations to disease, rhythm and mineral nutrients, pigment synthesis, male sterility, and important production traits of Brassica plants. The research progresses introduced in this paper not only demonstrates the advantages of whole-genome resequencing technology in the study of Brassica plants in comparison with previous methods based on mitochondrial DNA and chloroplast DNA markers, but also provides important theoretical and technical support for future breeding of new Brassica crop varieties with improved environmental adaptability and excellent production traits.

    Perspectives: As a relatively new research tool, whole-genome resequencing technology will be further widely adopted in future research of Brassica plants, its impact on the basic biological research and the breeding of new varieties of Brassica plants will be demonstrated.

    Progress on the species diversity of polychaete annelids in the sea areas of China
    Lizhe Cai, Zhi Wang, Deyuan Yang, Xiaoyu Zhao, Xiping Zhou
    Biodiv Sci. 2023, 31 (10):  23108.  doi:10.17520/biods.2023108
    Abstract ( 335 )   HTML ( 27 )   PDF (395KB) ( 343 )   Save
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    Background & Aims: Polychaetes constitute a vital component of the marine benthic community, playing an important role in the marine biological monitoring, mariculture, benthic food chain web, ecological assessment and ecological restoration. This study categorizes the investigation into species diversity of the polychaete annelids in the Chinese sea areas into three chronological stages based on the year of the initial species description, the publication of new species, and the inception of doctoral thesis on the subject.

    Progress: During the first stage (1933-1961), Chinese scholars documented numerous polychaete species, although no new species were identified. The second stage (1962-2007) witnessed the discovery of 49 new species, although no dedicated doctoral or master’s thesis were produced. The third stage led to the identification of 120 new species, with doctoral or master’s thesis. From 1933 to 2022, the number of new species and new recorded species found by Chinese scholars showed an ascending trajectory, albeit with substantial fluctuations across different time spans, particularly notable in the second stage.

    Proposal: At present, the study of polychaete species diversity in China encounters challenges related to the classification of certain families, genera, and species, with some requiring urgent attention. Furthermore, species families and genera demand in-depth exploration, while certain new species await acknowledgment from the World Register of Marine Species. Addressing these existing problems, this paper proposes to enhancement of the polychaete database and the argumentation of research pertaining to species diversity, genetic diversity, genetic variability, and environmental DNA in the Chinese context.


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