Adaptive Management Based on the Habitat Change of Cibotium barometz
under Synergistic Impact of Climate and Land Use Change ---A Case Study
of Guangxi, China
Abstract
With the rapidly growing demand for medicinal plants globally, a sharp
decline in the wild medicinal plant population. For rare, endangered, or
overexploited species, cultivation is the only way to provide material
without further endangering the survival of the valuable species. It is
therefore essential to understand, ‘how’ and ‘where’ cultivation can be
effectively implemented for dealing with conservation-related issues.
Not only climate but also habitat loss stressors and, their synergistic
effects matter in species redistribution and vulnerability. Climate
change impact assessment without risks of land use change should
mischaracterize the vulnerability and the spatiotemporal distribution of
species. These imbalances place substantial limitations upon the ability
to guide anticipative conservation actions and weigh the future outcomes
of different policy or management options. Cibotium barometz is a highly
demanded medicinal plant listed as a national key protected wild plant
in China. For adaptive management, we assessed the suitable habitat
change of C. barometz in Guangxi under the synergistic impact of climate
and land use change by Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) and Patch-generating
Land Use Simulation (PLUS) models between the current and 2040 under
three Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSP) and proposed adaptive
management countermeasure. Results indicate that altitude and BIO_18
are key environmental variables; suitable distribution area (SDA) shows
a southwest-northeast and upload trend; the areas of cropland, forest,
shrub, grassland, and barren are decreasing, water and impervious
increasing; climate change accelerates the loss of C. barometz’s
habitat, SDA and suitable habitat for C. barometz is decreasing; the
total area of suitable habitat is decreasing but the suitability degree
is increasing. We propose an adaptive response to wild resource
conservation based on the protected area system in southwestern in
parallel with artificial cultivation in northeastern Guangxi. The study
aims to provide insights into the sustainable utilization of endangered
medicinal plants.