Abstract
Abstract
Background
Medicinal plants have always played an important role in the history of human health. However, the populations and sustainable use of medicinal plants have been severely affected by human activities and climate change. Little is known about the current conservation status and distribution pattern of medicinal plants. In this study, based on accurate geographical distribution information of 9756 medicinal plants, we identified diversity hotspots and conservation gaps, evaluated conservation effectiveness of nature reserves, and predicted suitable habitat areas for medicinal plants in China to provide scientific guidance for their long-term conservation and sustainable use.
Results
A total of 150 diversity hotspot grid cells, mainly concentrated in central and southern China, were identified. These only accounted for 5% of the total distribution area but contained 96% of the medicinal plants of the country. The hotspot grid cells included all traditional hotspot areas, but we also detected three new hotspots, namely Mufu-Lushan Mountains, Tianshan-Altai Mountains, and Changbai Mountains. The current national and provincial nature reserves protect 125 hotspot grid cells, which harbor 94% of all medicinal plants. However, 25 hotspot grid cells, distributed in the Tianshan-Altai Mountains and Hengduan Mountains, are located outside the national and provincial nature reserves. An analysis of the predicted effects of climate change indicated that the suitable habitat areas will shift from southern to northern China, and that southern China will face a considerable loss of suitable habitat areas, while the east and west parts of China will encompass remarkably more suitable habitat areas in the future.
Conclusions
The current conservation networks have achieved high conservation effectiveness with regard to medicinal plants; however, the conservation gaps we identified should not be neglected, and conservation planning needs to take into account the predicted shifts of some hotspots of medicinal plants due to climate change.
Funder
national natural science foundation of china
The Biodiversity Survey and Assessment Project of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China
Key Higher Plant Investigation and Conservation Effectiveness Evaluation Program of Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China
guangxi administration of traditional chinese medicine
national administration of traditional chinese medicine
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Cell Biology,Developmental Biology,Plant Science,General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics,Structural Biology,Biotechnology
Reference90 articles.
1. Kong JM, Goh NK, Chia LS, Chia TF. Recent advances in traditional plant drugs and orchids. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2003;24:7–21.
2. Chi XL, Zhang ZJ, Xu XT, Zhang XB, Zhao ZP, Liu YN, et al. Threatened medicinal plants in China: distributions and conservation priorities. Biol Conserv. 2017;210:89–95.
3. Sekhar MS, Aneesh TP, Varghese KJ, Vasudaven DT, Revikumar KG. Herbalism: a phenomenon of new age in medicine. Int J Pharm. 2008;6:1.
4. Kadioglu O, Jacob S, Bohnert S, Naß J, Saeed MEM, Khalid H, et al. Evaluating ancient Egyptian prescriptions today: anti-inflammatory activity of Ziziphus spina-christi. Phytomedicine. 2016;23(3):293–306.
5. Pandey A, Chandra Sekar K, Joshi B, Rawal RS. Threat assessment of high-value medicinal plants of cold desert areas in Johar valley, Kailash Sacred Landscape, India. Plant Biosyst. 2018;153(1):39–47.
Cited by
14 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献