Geographic range size patterns across plants and animals of Xinjiang,China

Patterns in species geographic range size are relatively well-known for vertebrates,but still poorly known for plants.Contrasts of these patterns between groups have rarely been investigated.With a detailed flora and fauna distribution database of Xinjiang,China,we used regression methods,redundancy analysis and random forests to explore the relationship of environment and body size with the geographic range size of plants,mammals and birds in Xinjiang and contrast these patterns between plants and animals.We found positive correlations between species range size and body size.The range size of plants was more influenced by water variables,while that of mammals and birds was largely influenced by temperature variables.The productivity variable,i.e.,Enhanced Vegetation Index(EVI)was far more correlated with range size than climatic variables for both plants and animals,suggesting that vegetation productivity inferred from remote sensing data may be a good predictor of species range size for both plants and animals.

Towards a scientific rationale for traditional properties of Chinese medicinal plants: “natures” and “flavors”

Objective: According to theory of Chinese medicine property, the ecological environment shapes properties(natures and flavors) of Chinese materia medica(CMM) and there are close relationships between certain natures and flavors. However, to date these observations have not been validated scientifically in the context of the whole flora of a region. The present study aims to address this gap.Methods: We collected geographical distributions of 3637 vascular plant species native to the Xinjiang region of northwest China, of which around 812 are medicinal plants. The CMM property characters of these medicinal plants were also collected. All medicinal plants were then analyzed in the occurrence of their natures(cold, cool, neutral, warm, and hot) and flavors(sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and pungent). Possible correlations between these properties and environmental factors, notably climate, as well as correlations with plant species richness of the wider native flora of Xinjiang were then investigated using permutation test and regression.Results: Cold species(38.5%) were more numerous than warm(21.0%) and neutral(22.3%), while bitter species(43.3%) were more numerous than pungent(25.6%), sweet(22.4%) and sour(6.7%) ones. Species with bitter flavor were most commonly also cold(48.6%) in nature, sour flavor usually coincided with cold(44.2%) or cool nature(26.0%), whereas pungent or sweet species tended to be warm(34.4%, 28.4%) or neutral(27.8%, 28.4%). The percentages of species of cold/cool nature, bitter flavor were higher in mountainous regions, and the percentages of warm/neutral and pungent/sweet/sour were higher in basins. The percentages of species of cold/cool, bitter were positively correlated with actual evapotranspiration(AET),and also plant species richness but had a bell-shaped relationship with potential evapotranspiration(PET),whereas the inverse situation was shown for warm/neutral and pungent/sweet/sour species.Conclusion: Analysis of the data in Xinjiang region of China supports the qualitative observations concerning natures and flavors in traditional theory of Chinese medicine property. Specifically,(i) certain natures and flavors co-occur more frequently than if randomly distributed;(ii) correlations between proportions of natures and flavors and climatic variables suggest a role for the environment in shaping the properties of CMM.

Red list assessments of Chinese higher plants

Based on the two most recent assessments of Chinese higher plants in 2013 and 2020,of 34,450 and 39,330 species,respectively,we analysed the threatened status of Chinese higher plants.In 2020,around 4,088(10.39%)of the assessed species in China are threatened,2,875(7.31%)Near Threatened,27,593(70.16%)not currently threatened and categorised as Least Concern and 4,752(12.08%)categorised as Data Deficient.While in 2013,3,767(10.93%)of the assessed higher plants in China are threatened,2,723(7.90%)Near Threatened,24,296(70.53%)Least Concern and 3,612(10.48%)Data Deficient.Estimates of the Red List Index in the two years show different patterns when using different weighting methods with the equal steps weighting method showing a slight decrease(0.91675-0.91495)and the extinction risk weighting method showing a slight increase(0.98792-0.98797).We inferred that China's threatened plant species were likely/relatively effectively protected.However,attention should also be given to the non-threatened species in the future as an additional strategy for their conservation,to maintain their non-threatened status.