The Research Of Western Yunnan Priority Conservation Areas Based On Environmental Heterogeneity And Human Disturbance

The impact of environmental heterogeneity and human disturbance on biodiversity has always been a hot issue in the identification of priority areas.In the traditional niche theory,it is believed that environmental heterogeneity can gestate abundant biodiversity.Human disturbance is also an important factor to be considered in the protection of priority areas.In the system protection planning,the identified of protection priority areas in the context of coupled environmental heterogeneity and human disturbance can enhance the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation while climate change and socio-economic development.The Western Yunnan Province is an abundant biodiversity region that covered global and Chinese biodiversity hotspots.Although the Western Yunnan Province has established a protected land system with a nature reserve as its core,there are still some national protected species habitats that are not included in the protected land system and there are conservation gaps.Therefore,the identification of protection priority areas in coupled environment heterogeneity and human disturbance will help to improve and optimize existing protected area systemsBased on the the Arcgis platform,datas of environmental heterogeneity protection priority area and human disturbance in the Western Yunnan Province,this study removes the high human disturbance areas in the environmental heterogeneity protection priority area,thus identifying low human disturbance and environmental heterogeneity potential protection priority area.Then use the vegetation cover and the biodiversity data of the Western Yunnan Province to identify the rationality of the potential protection priority area.Finally,determine the low human disturbance and environmental heterogeneity protection priority area.Combined with the information of the established nature reserves.this study analyzes the conservation gaps existing in the Western Yunnan Province,and then proposes the optimization strategy of the protection system based on the county unit to provide reference for biodiversity conservation in the Western Yunnan Province.The Main research findings are as follows:(1)The high human disturbance area(HDI>2.48)in the Western Yunnan Province accounts for 0.2%of the study area,and it is mainly distributed in Dali City,Baoshan City,Changning County,Fengqing County,Pu’er City and Jinghong City.The low human disturbance area(1.16>HDI)has the largest distribution area in the study area,accounting for about 60.0%of the study area,and it is mainly distributed in Fugong,Gongshan and other counties in the north of the study area;Jiangcheng,Menglian.Handan and other counties in the south and Yingjiang,Tengchong and Luanchuan in the west of study area.(2)Overall,the main areas of the low human disturbance and environmental heterogeneity protection priority area in the Western Yunnan Province are:Gongshan County,Fugong County,Weixi County,Yunlong County,Jiangcheng County,Lushui County and Deqing County.Among them,the protection priority area is the most widely distributed in Gongshan County,covering 86.36%of the area of Gongshan County and the coverage of the nature reserve in Gongshan County is also the highest.The Gaoligongshan Nature Reserve in Gongshan County covers more than 50%of the county area.There are no provincial and national nature reserves in Jiangcheng County.(3)The vegetation coverage rate of the low human disturbance and environmental heterogeneity protection priority area is about 91.5%.The main types of vegetation are the temperate-cool coniferous forests,the monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forests,the cold-temperate coniferous forests,temperate shrub and thicket and the temperate coniferous forests.In the west of Yunnan,most of the animal species are concentrated in the western border,such as Xishuangbanna Autonomous Region,Tengchong and its surrounding areas;most of the plant species are concentrated in the southwest,and the least protected plants are located in the central part of the study area.(4)The counties which coverage of nature reserves in the study area is less than 5%,and the low human disturbance and environmental heterogeneity protection priority area accounts for>17%:Yunlong,Jiangcheng,Yongping,Shidian,Mangshi,Weishan,Changning,Longling.Among them,there are no nature reserves in Jiangcheng County,Shidian County,Mangshi City and Changning County.The counties which coverage of the nature reserve is less than 5%and low human disturbance and environmental heterogeneity protection priority area accounts for<17%:Menghai,Jianchuan,Zhenyuan,Jinggu,Lancang,Ximeng,Lianghe,Menglian Ning’er,there are no nature reserves in Ximeng,Lianghe,Menglian,Ning’er.These counties with lots of protected species and no nature reserves urgently need to build and optimize protected area systems.This study has indicated that the human disturbance and environmental heterogeneity combination could better identify biodiversity protection priority area to a certain extent.Based on the socio-economic datas,the former better reveals the status of human disturbance in the Western Yunnan Province.The latter can better protect the biodiversity of the Western Yunnan Province in the context of climate change.Combined human disturbance and environmental heterogeneity can enhance the effectiveness of identificating protection priority areas.This study provides a reference for the optimization of the protected area system at regional scale.