Vol20 No.12:3568-3581

【Title】Phylogenetic conservatism in threatened species responses to climate change differs between functional types in the Gongga Mountains of China

【Author】ZU Kui-ling^1,2,3; Nawal SHRESTHA⁴; JIANG Yong⁵; JIA Guo-qing⁵; PENG Shi-jia²; ZHU Xiang-yun³*; WANG Zhi-heng²*

【Addresses】1 Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Forest Ecosystem Protection and Restoration of Poyang Lake Watershed, College of Forestry, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China; 2 Institute of Ecology and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; 3 State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China; 4 State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Gansu, Lanzhou 730000, China; 5 Administration of Gongga Mountain National Nature Reserve, Kangding 626000, China

【Corresponding author】ZHU Xiang-yun³*; WANG Zhi-heng²*

【Citation】Zu KL,Shrestha N, Jiang Y,et al. (2023) Phylogenetic conservatism in threatened species responses to climate change differs between functional types in the Gongga Mountains of China. Journal of Mountain Science 20(12).https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-022-7671-4

【DOI】https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-022-7671-4

【Abstract】Climate change has become one of the most critical threats to global biodiversity. However, whether phylogenetically related species respond to climate change in similar ways remains controversial. The answer to this question is crucial for understanding the impacts of climate change and the conservation on the tree of life. By integrating species distribution models with a molecular phylogeny of 50 threatened plant species from one of the global biodiversity hotspots, Gongga Mountains (Mt. Gongga) in southwest China, we evaluated the responses of threatened plant species to future climate change, and estimated whether species responses are phylogenetically conserved. Phylogenetic reconstruction was used to calculate the phylogenetic distance and null model to verify the reliability of the results. We found that correlations between responses of different species to future climate change decreased with the increase in their phylogenetic distance in the monocotyledonous or herbaceous species, but not in the dicotyledonous and woody species. Our results suggested that the responses of herbaceous and monocotyledonous threatened species in Mt. Gongga to future climate change tend to be phylogenetically conserved, while the responses of woody and dicotyledonous threatened species are not. Our study provides evidence for the existence of phylogenetically non-random extinction in the monocotyledonous herbs in Mt. Gongga and highlights the importance of integrating phylogenetic information and evolutionary history into conservation planning. We also provide theoretical basis and technical support for designing effective conservation schemes for the protection of biodiversity under anthropogenic climate change.

【Keywords】Conservation strategies; Climate suitability; Mountain plants; Phylogenetic distance; Species distribution models