| Reserves are often designed to protect rare species and habitats, or typical exemplars of ecoregions and geomorphic provinces. These approaches focus on current patterns of organismal and ecosystem-level biodiversity, but typically ignores the evolutionary processes that control the gain and loss of biodiversity at genetic level. Evergreen broad-leaved forest Area of eastern subtropical China is located in the Yangtze River Basin and the Pearl River Basin between 22°-34°N. Being controlled by Pacific Monsoon and characterized by complex topology, this area contains rich plant resources and has the most typical evergreen broad-leaved forest in the world. By using GIS technique and a landscape genetic toolkit (MGL-Toolbox), this study integrated the genetic diversity data (obtained from chloroplast markers) of multiple forest plants in evergreen broad-leaved forest Area of eastern subtropical China. The results showed that there were 16 evolutionary hotspots within eastern subtropical China, with a total area of 83058 km2, accounting for 17.29% of the whole analyzed area. Gap analysis indicated that most hotspots identified here have not been covered by current nature reserves. The results provide a new dimension for long-term programme of nature reserve in eastern subtropical China. In addition, this study may represent a pioneer work in China with respect to the protection of genetic diversity at regional level. |
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