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Effectiveness of nature reserve system for conserving tropical forests: a statistical evaluation of Hainan Island, China.

ABSTRACT: Evaluating the effectiveness of existing nature reserve systems for the conservation of tropical forests is an urgent task to save the remaining biodiversity. Here, we tested the effectiveness of the reserve system on Hainan Island by conducting a three-way comparison of changes in forest area in locations within the reserves, adjacent to the reserves, and far outside of the reserves. We used a general linear model to control for the effects of covariates (historical forest area, elevation, slope, and distance to nearest roads), which may also be correlated with the changes in forest area, to better explain the effectiveness of the reserve system. From 2000 to 2010, the forest area inside Hainan's nature reserve system showed an increase while adjacent unprotected areas and the wider, unprotected landscape both experienced deforestation. However, the simple inside-outside comparisons may overestimate the protective effect of the reserve system. Most nature reserves (>60%) showed increasing fragmentation. And the risk of rapid deforestation remained high at low elevations, where remaining forests tend to be easily logged and converted to commercial plantations. Future conservation efforts should pay more attention to those sites with less challenging environmental conditions.

SUBMITTER: Wang W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3585332 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effectiveness of nature reserve system for conserving tropical forests: a statistical evaluation of Hainan Island, China.

Wang Wei W Pechacek Peter P Zhang Mingxia M Xiao Nengwen N Zhu Jianguo J Li Junsheng J

PloS one 20130228 2

Evaluating the effectiveness of existing nature reserve systems for the conservation of tropical forests is an urgent task to save the remaining biodiversity. Here, we tested the effectiveness of the reserve system on Hainan Island by conducting a three-way comparison of changes in forest area in locations within the reserves, adjacent to the reserves, and far outside of the reserves. We used a general linear model to control for the effects of covariates (historical forest area, elevation, slop ...[more]

PMID: 23469024

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Project description:BackgroundWithin a regional floristic context, DNA barcoding is more useful to manage plant diversity inventories on a large scale and develop valuable conservation strategies. However, there are no DNA barcode studies from tropical areas of China, which represents one of the biodiversity hotspots around the world.Methodology and principal findingsA DNA barcoding database of an Asian tropical trees with high diversity was established at Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, Yunnan, southwest China using rbcL and matK as standard barcodes, as well as trnH-psbA and ITS as supplementary barcodes. The performance of tree species identification success was assessed using 2,052 accessions from four plots belonging to two vegetation types in the region by three methods: Neighbor-Joining, Maximum-Likelihood and BLAST. We corrected morphological field identification errors (9.6%) for the three plots using rbcL and matK based on Neighbor-Joining tree. The best barcode region for PCR and sequencing was rbcL (97.6%, 90.8%), followed by trnH-psbA (93.6%, 85.6%), while matK and ITS obtained relative low PCR and sequencing success rates. However, ITS performed best for both species (44.6-58.1%) and genus (72.8-76.2%) identification. With trnH-psbA slightly less effective for species identification. The two standard barcode rbcL and matK gave poor results for species identification (24.7-28.5% and 31.6-35.3%). Compared with other studies from comparable tropical forests (e.g. Cameroon, the Amazon and India), the overall performance of the four barcodes for species identification was lower for the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, possibly because of species/genus ratios and species composition between these tropical areas.Conclusions/significanceAlthough the core barcodes rbcL and matK were not suitable for species identification of tropical trees from Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, they could still help with identification at the family and genus level. Considering the relative sequence recovery and the species identification performance, we recommend the use of trnH-psbA and ITS in combination as the preferred barcodes for tropical tree species identification in China.

Dataset Information

Effectiveness of nature reserve system for conserving tropical forests: a statistical evaluation of Hainan Island, China.

Publications

Effectiveness of nature reserve system for conserving tropical forests: a statistical evaluation of Hainan Island, China.

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