Distribution and Conservation of Ephedra rhytidosperma

Abstract

With global warming and increasingly intensified human activities, numerous species are on the verge of extinction, ca. 28% of living species are threatened globally, although conservation of endangered species has received worldwide attention. It remains unclear if threatened species have been appropriately conserved or not. Ephedra rhytidosperma is an endangered species and included in the List of National Key Protected Wild Plants in China (released in September 2021). This shrubby species is endemic to the Helan Mountains in northwestern China where it dominates the lowland vegetation. We have conducted an integrative investigation on the conservation of the species. We used the MaxEnt model to predict the potential geographic distribution of E. rhytidosperma under past, current, and future climatic scenarios based on distributional occurrences and environmental data and investigated the conservation status and its effectiveness. The results show that E. rhytidosperma is mainly distributed in lowland Helan Mountains, while the range in the past and future show different patterns. The range has shrunk significantly and migrated westwards since the Last Interglacial, whereas the projected area in the future displays a fluctuating pattern and easterly migration. The precipitation (Bio14), the temperature (Bio9), and degree of slope (Slope) are the dominant factors influencing its current and future ranges. We also found that E. rhytidosperma populations at different altitudes showed different adaptations to the environment. Our assessment of the conservation status of the hotspots revealed that only 15.1% occur in nature reserves, implying that a large conservation gap remains. In addition, there has been less attention paid to ex situ conservation. As a result, we propose conducting an integrative conservation approach including both in situ and ex situ management to save E. rhytidosperma. Our study lays a solid foundation for the development of targeted conservation strategies for E. rhytidosperma.