Conifer-richness pattern at vulnerability and endemism levels:
Topographic-soil fertility explanation
Abstract
The current study aims to: 1) Evaluate the richness pattern of conifer
species; 2) Assess the relative importance of climatic, topographic,
edaphic, and human factors on richness patterns; 3) Explore the dominant
drivers at vulnerability and endemism levels; and 4) Identify the most
important areas of conifer diversity (IPAs). We compiled 8,962
distributional records of 97 conifer species to estimate the richness at
50 km2 resolution. Generalized linear models and hierarchical
partitioning were applied to evaluate the effect of drivers on the
richness pattern followed by stepwise regression to select the best
group of predictors. We found that topographic heterogeneity and soil
nutrient-fertility were consistently the strongest drivers of richness,
while seasonality, energy, water, and human drivers contributed much
lower. Moreover, IPAs mostly located outside nature reserves, meanwhile
inside ecoregions. Overall, our findings indicated that hypotheses of
soil-topographic heterogeneity would provide great insights into
conservation of conifer diversity and ecosystem-functioning.