Prediction of Potential Suitable Distribution Areas for an Endangered Salamander in China.

Climate change has been considered to pose critical threats for wildlife. During the past decade, species distribution models were widely used to assess the effects of climate change on the distribution of species' suitable habitats. Among all the vertebrates, amphibians are most vulnerable to climate change. This is especially true for salamanders, which possess some specific traits such as cutaneous respiration and low vagility. The Wushan salamander (Liua shihi) is a threatened and protected salamander in China, with its wild population decreasing continuously. The main objective of this study was to predict the distribution of suitable habitat for L. shihi using the ENMeval parameter-optimized MaxEnt model under current and future climate conditions. Our results showed that precipitation, cloud density, vegetation type, and ultraviolet radiation were the main environmental factors affecting the distribution of L. shihi. Currently, the suitable habitats for L. shihi are mainly concentrated in the Daba Mountains, including northeastern Chongqing and western Hubei Provinces. Under the future climate conditions, the area of suitable habitats increased, which mainly occurred in central Guizhou Province. This study provided important information for the conservation of L. shihi. Future studies can incorporate more species distribution models to better understand the effects of climate change on the distribution of L. shihi.

Patterns of Tadpole ß Diversity in Temperate Montane Streams.

Understanding the spatial variation and formation mechanism of biological diversity is a hot topic in ecological studies. Comparing with α diversity, ß diversity is more accurate in reflecting community dynamics. During the past decades, ß diversity studies usually focused on plants, mammals, and birds. Studies of amphibian ß diversity in montane ecosystems, in particular, tadpoles, are still rare. In this study, Mount Emei, located in southwestern China, was selected as the study area. We explored the tadpole ß diversity in 18 streams, based on a two-year survey (2018-2019). Our results indicated a high total ß diversity in tadpole assemblages, which was determined by both turnover and nestedness processes, and the dominant component was turnover. Both the total ß diversity and turnover component were significantly and positively correlated with geographical, elevational, and environmental distances, but no significant relationship was detected between these and the nestedness component. Moreover, the independent contributions of river width, current velocity, and chlorophyll α were larger than that of geographical and elevational distance. Overall, tadpole ß diversity was determined by both spatial and environmental factors, while the contribution of environmental factors was larger. Future studies can focus on functional and phylogenetic structures, to better understand the tadpole assembly process.