College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, China.
Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu, China.
Conserv Biol. 2024 Apr;38(2):e14215. doi: 10.1111/cobi.14215. Epub 2023 Nov 22.
China announced the development of its first 5 national parks in 2021, the primary objective of which is to conserve the natural state and integrity of natural ecosystems. As such, ecosystem services and biodiversity levels are crucial assessment factors for the parks. For Giant Panda National Park (GPNP), we evaluated ecological sensitivity based on water and soil erosion and rocky desertification; ecosystem services based on headwater conservation, soil and water conservation, and biodiversity conservation; and presence of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and sympatric species (e.g., takin [Budorcas taxicolor], Asiatic black bear [Ursus thibetanus]) habitat suitability derived from niche modeling to identify the ecosystem status and assess ecological problems within the park. From our results, we proposed ecologically critical areas to target to meet the park's goals. The suitable habitat for pandas and sympatric species encompassed 62.98% of the park and occurred mainly in the Minshan Mountains. One quarter of the total area (25.67%) contained areas important for ecosystem services. Ecologically sensitive and extremely sensitive areas covered 88.78% of the park and were distributed mainly in Qionglaishan and Minshan Mountains. This coverage indicated that there was much habitat for pandas and sympatric species but that the ecosystems in GPNP are vulnerable. Therefore, ecologically critical areas encompassed all suitable habitats for all the species examined and areas important and extremely important to ecosystem service provision,ecologically sensitive and extremely sensitive areas, encompassed 15.17% of panda habitat, accounted for 16.37% of the GPNP area, and were distributed mainly in the Minshan Mountains. Our results indicated where conservation efforts should be focused in the park and that by identifying ecologically critical areas managers can provide targeted protection for wildlife habitat and ecosystems and effectively and efficiently protect the composite ecosystem. Additionally, our methods can be used to inform development of new national parks.
中国于 2021 年宣布建立第一批 5 个国家公园，其主要目标是保护自然状态和自然生态系统的完整性。因此，生态系统服务和生物多样性水平是公园的重要评估因素。对于大熊猫国家公园（GPNP），我们基于水土流失和石漠化评估了生态敏感性；基于水源涵养、水土保持和生物多样性保护评估了生态系统服务；并基于生态位模型评估了大熊猫（Ailuropoda melanoleuca）和共生种（如羚牛 [Budorcas taxicolor]、亚洲黑熊 [Ursus thibetanus]）栖息地适宜性，以确定公园内的生态系统状况并评估生态问题。根据我们的研究结果，我们提出了生态关键区域，以实现公园的目标。熊猫和共生种的适宜栖息地覆盖了公园的 62.98%，主要分布在岷山山脉。总面积的四分之一（25.67%）包含对生态系统服务重要的区域。生态敏感和极度敏感区域覆盖了公园的 88.78%，主要分布在琼腊山和岷山山脉。这一覆盖范围表明，有大量的熊猫和共生种栖息地，但 GPNP 的生态系统很脆弱。因此，生态关键区域涵盖了所有受检物种的所有适宜栖息地以及对生态系统服务提供重要和极重要的区域、生态敏感和极度敏感区域，涵盖了 15.17%的熊猫栖息地，占 GPNP 面积的 16.37%，主要分布在岷山山脉。我们的研究结果表明，保护工作应集中在公园的哪些区域，通过确定生态关键区域，管理者可以为野生动物栖息地和生态系统提供有针对性的保护，并有效地保护复合生态系统。此外，我们的方法可以为新国家公园的发展提供信息。
