Study On The Distribution Pattern Of Amphibia In China

Many zoogeographers believe that the faunal biogeographic region in China was originated from ancient Palaearctic fauna and Oriental fauna separately, there should be a delimiting line between the Palaearctic and Oriental regions in eastern China. However, taxa analyses lend strong support to the hypothesis of Wei&Nie (2008) who held forth that China and East Asia fauna shows obvious integrity, i.e. China and East Asia should be single source originated.Holt etc.(2012) proposed Sino-Japanese Realm in a new world zoogeographical regionalization program, which delineated the East Asian region as an distinct new zoogeographic realm by combining data on the distributions and phylogenetic relationships of21,037species of amphibians, birds, and mammals.In this paper, I tested the hypotheses of Wei&Nie (2008) and Holt etc.(2012) by analyzing the geographic distribution pattern of extant amphibian taxa in China. In the mean time, I identify the East Asian ingredients of the amphibian taxa in China, and focuse on the distribution pattern of the East Asian ingredients.The distribution pattern of extant amphibian taxa was analyzed by using GIS analysis, methods. Distribution maps of all amphibian species in China, which have been known to science currently, i.e.3orders,11families64genus398amphibian species (including20subspecies and4introduced species) have been drafted for the distribution pattern analysis. The results showed that East-Asian ingredients composed the majority of amphibian taxa in China, i.e.323species can be grouped into East Asian ingredients, among them,239species belonging to typical East-Asian ingredients, which reaches to60.1%of the total.Eleven areas of endemism were determined based on analyzing distribution maps; Hengduan Mountainous area was located as distribution and specialization center by statistic analysis on all distribution sites of genera and species separately; and4sub-centers were located in the meantime;10types of species distribution patterns and29types generic distribution patterns of Chinese amphibians were summarized afterwards. In addition, the distributions routes of amphibians in East Asia and China were closely related to the river distribution sites. The results from the distribution patterns of East-Asian ingredients of amphibian taxa supported the hypothesis of Wei&Nie (2008), and were consistent with Holt’s Sino-Japanese Realm hypothesis..