Diversity And Vertical Distribution Of Amphibians And Reptiles In Wuyi Mountain National Nature Reserve,Fujian

The reserve of Wuyi Mountain in Fujian is the only protected area in China that is both a world biosphere reserve and a world double heritage reserve.This reserve is a key area for biodiversity conservation in the world and enjoys the reputations of the“World Window of Life" and "The Kingdom of Snakes",because of its richness in biological resources.Amphibians and reptiles are important components of vertebrates and play important roles in the life evolution and they are the bridge between the aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates.In order to update the basic data and learn the diversity and the altitude distribution characteristics of amphibians and reptiles in Wuyi Mountain National Nature Reserve,Fujian Province,this study had conducted a survey of amphibians and reptiles from October 2015 to November 2018.Combined with historical literature data,the results are as follows:(1)There are 1100 amphibians recorded in the survey,which belong to 2 orders,8 families,18 genera and 27 species.Limnonectes fujianensis,Hylarana latouchii and Bufo gargarizans are dominant species.The degree of biodiversity(H=2.498)was relatively high and the distribution(J=0.758)was relatively uniform.The oriental realm species(84.2%)are dominant proportion of the fauna.The ecological types are highly diverse,including 5 models(arboreal model,terrestrial-stream model,static water model,stream model,land-static water model),but mainly belong to running water model(3 3%)and terrestrial-quiet water model(30%).(2)In the reserve,amphibians distribute at the altitudes ranged from 300 m to 1899 m,of which most of them distributed below 1600 m and a small number of them are widely distributed in elevation.The vertical distribution of amphibians shows a unimodal distribution pattern with single peaks in low altitudes.Distributions of species are more similar between adjacent altitude gradient and there are two significant species replacements occur in the altitudes of 400 m and 1200 m.Species compositions are significantly different between high and low altitudes.(3)There are 143 reptiles recorded in the survey,which belongs to 1 order,11 families,30 genera and 38 species,of which,Plestiodon elegans,Opisthotropis latouchii,Viridovipera stejnegeri are dominant species.The species richness(H=2.865)and evenness(J=0.788)of the reptiles are relatively high,and the faunal component is relatively simple,dominated by the oriental realm species(84.2%).There are 5 ecological types(residential model,shrub-rock model,aquatic model,forest-water model,arboreal model)of reptiles but more than half of the species is shrub-rock model(53%).(4)There are reptiles distribution in the protected area at the altitudes ranged from 200 m to 1599 m.The vertical distribution of reptiles showed a middle-elevation peak pattern.Most of the species distribute below 1300 m and the maximum diversity has been observed at an altitude ranged from 700-799 meters.Replacement of species is more obvious in low elevation parts.The composition of species is relatively stable because of the high similarity of species in middle altitudes.Meanwhile,there are high similarity in near elevations.In addition,there are obvious differences in niche and distribution of different species of reptiles,meanwhile there are highly similarity of altitudinal distribution and habitat among some species.(5)There are some differences between the survey results and the literature records of the vertical distribution range of amphibians and reptiles.Among the 36 species of amphibians with altitudinal distribution records,the results of 11 species are different from the records on literature.Among the 68 species of reptiles with elevation distribution records,the distribution of 6 species are not the same as the literature records.The reasons for the differences may be multifaceted.Unique climate,topography,vegetation,the interaction of the food chain and the accuracy of equipment may all affect the distribution of animals.(6)There are 40 species of Amphibians in Wuyi Mountain,Fujian,belonging to 2 orders,9 families,23 genera and there are also 78 species of Reptiles,belonging to 2 orders,18 families,52 genera at present.The species diversity of the amphibian and reptile is at a high level comparing with other areas both in Fujian and in China.Reptile resources are more abundant than amphibians,but the G-F index of amphibian(0.523)is higher than the reptile(0.507),indicating that the amphibians are less differentiation than the reptiles and the phylogenetic relationships are closer.