Adjustment Of The Range And Functional Zoning For Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias Davidianus) Nature Reserve In Zhangjiajie City Based On The Population Viability Analysis

Hunan Zhangjiajie Chinese giant salamander national nature reserve was established,and its range was set based on a principle of blindly seeking for a larger area,thus included 76% the water area into it.The adjusted protection strategy remained the same problem as the original one.Under this natural reserve protection scheme,there are many irrationalities such as: on the one hand,it leads to the failure of effective protection to the wild population of Chinese giant salamander,and on the other hand,it brings the great contradiction between the management of the reserve and the local economic development and life.Therefore,further adjustment of the functional zoning of this reserve is urgently needed.This study analyzed the main problems of the current range and functional zoning of Zhangjiajie Chinese giant salamander national nature reserve,investigated the wild resources and habitats of the species in the nature reserve,quantitatively analyzed the current population dynamics of Zhangjiajie Chinese giant salamander based on the population viability analysis theory and used VORTEX simulation software to derive the main limiting factors affecting its population development.Combined these investigated results with the relevant regulations of the national protected areas,we then proposed an optimized functional zoning and range adjustment plan for the Zhangjiajie Chinese giant salamander national nature reserve.The main results and conclusions are as follows.(1)The survey of wild resources and habitat of Chinese giant salamander in Zhangjiajie Chinese giant salamander national natural reserve revealed that the wild populations were distributed in discontinuous areas,and in some parts of the reserve the ecological environment is generally good and still inhabited by wild Chinese giant salamander,especially these important habitats such as the Wumuyu,Luozita,Yuanzi and Wudaoshui.However,in some towns and villages there was no wild populations of Chinese giant salamander and their habitats have been severely damaged,making it difficult to recover.The altitude of the reserve had relatively little restriction on the distribution of Chinese giant salamander.The width of the river varied widely among sample sites,but the depth of the river was relatively more stable,with a width of 1± 13 m between sites and an average depth of 2 ± 3 m.The results of the principal component analysis indicated that pH and dissolved oxygen were the primary indicators of water quality selection by the Chinese giant salamanders in the study area,while conductivity was a secondary indicator of water quality selection by the Chinese giant salamanders.(2)VORTEX software was used to simulate the population dynamics of Chinese giant salamanders for the next 100 years under three natural reserve scheme,and it was found that anthropogenic disasters and environmental capacity were the key factors that limiting the population development of Chinese giant salamander.Under the simulated conditions,an increase in the environmental capacity of the reserve would lead to a decrease in competition among individuals,an increase in food and habitat,and finally act on an increase of wild population.The net reproductive rate increased most significantly under the schemes of the two adjusted functional zoning plans,which positively proved that increasing the environmental capacity and reducing the impact of disasters by adjusting the range and functional zoning of the protected area will result in a more dynamic population growth and a better population viability,which would greatly reduce the risk of extinction of the species.(3)Based on the distribution of wild populations,the range and functional zoning of the reserve were optimal proposed by considering to reduce disasters and increase the environmental capacity.The new plan excluded these uncovered areas from natural reserve such as these with many industry and agricultural programs,without wild population of Chinese giant salamander for many years;on the other hand,it included these important areas still with wild populations of Chinese giant salamander and set these areas as the core zones.The core zones were surrounded by buffer zones and then surrounded by experiment zones,where the three functional zoned were hierarchically cycled,occupying relative 34.4%,27.4% and 38.2% of the whole protected areas,respectively.We assessed this new optimal plan using population viability analysis,and it indicated that the population viability was better in the new scheme,which could eliminate the extinction risks of this species.