PJB-2020-525
Predicting the potential distribution of Taxus wallichiana var. Mairei under climate change in China using Maxent modeling
Li Hong-Qun, Xing Li-Gang and Sun Xie-Ping
Abstract
Understanding the spatial distribution of species is significant for the conservation management of the endangered tree species, Taxus wallichiana var. mairei. And this species attracts people's attention owing to its important biological compounds such as paclitaxel (taxol) used in many cancer therapies. Here, the potential geographical distribution of the maire yew was analyzed by using the Maxent model from Mid-Holocene to the 2070s. The results indicated that the prediction performances were excellent with an area under curve of >0.9 for model training and testing. The most significant factors were precipitation of the driest month, annual precipitation, altitude and min temperature of the coldest month, with thresholds of 22.3 to 122.5 mm, 1,100 to 2,100 mm, 50 to 1,100 m and -2 to 4℃, respectively, indicating that the maire yew seems to prefer warm and humid environment. The suitable areas of the maire yew in China are mainly distributed on southwestern, central, southern and eastern China from Mid-Holocene to the 2070s. However, proportion of the suitable habitat is predicted to be increasing gradually from Mid-Holocene to the 2070s. Most importantly, western Henan, southern Shaanxi, eastern Sichuan and the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces etc. were predicted to be new suitable centralized areas for its introduction and cultivation. Thus, the study should be a useful guide for management decisions of the species
To Cite this article:
Hong-Qun, L., X. Li-Gang and S. Xie-Ping. 2022. Predicting the potential distribution of Taxus wallichiana var. Mairei under climate change in China using Maxent modeling. Pak. J. Bot., 54(4): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2022-4(9)
Download
