Projecting species loss and turnover under climate change for Chinese
tree species
Abstract
Climate-change-induced habitat loss will be the largest global threat to
biodiversity. Here, we projected species turnover and loss for Chinese
tree species under four climate change scenarios. The results show that
many trees will be seriously threatened. On average across climate
scenarios, about 57% or 23% of the trees would be vulnerable or
threatened under no migration assumption or universal migration by 2070,
respectively. Projection of species loss and turnover in grid cells
indicates considerable variation across climate change scenarios
(20%–30% and 40%–65%, respectively) and across geographical
regions (25.4%–58.1% and 40.6%–78.8%, respectively). Notably,
local extinction risks for Chinese trees species may be high; even under
the most conservative situation (lowest emission scenario with universal
migration), 18% trees will still be vulnerable or threatened. We
suggest that a further studying trees adaptation strategy to climate
change is required to ensure the sustainable development of China’s
forests.