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Phytogeographical patterns of genera of endemic flora in relation to latitudinal and climatic gradients in China

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Abstract

This paper aims at detecting the relationships between phytogeographical patterns of genera of Chinese endemic seed plants and latitude or climatic factors. The landmass of China was divided into four latitudinal zones, each of c. 8°. Based on a total of 1664 indigenous genera of Chinese endemic seed plants which were grouped into fifteen geographical elements, belonging to three major categories (cosmopolitan, tropical and temperate) and which were absent or present in 28 provinces in China, we analyzed the phytogeographical patterns of genera of Chinese endemic seed plants and detected the relationships between them and main climatic factors. Our results showed that the proportion of tropical genera decreases with the increase in latitude; the proportion of temperate genera increases with the increase in latitude; and the proportion of cosmopolitan genera increased gradually increased gradually with latitude. There are a slow decrease in the proportion of tropical genera and slow increase in the proportion of temperate genera at latitudes 35°–40°. Alternatively, the tropical genera and the temperate genera have the same proportion at latitude c. 25°. These changes and issues about the different genera also appeared in main climate factors. In general, the genera present in a more northerly flora are a subset of the genera present in a more southerly flora. In summary, the large-scale patterns of phytogeography of endemic flora in China are strongly related to latitude, which covary with several climatic variables such as temperature.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the many people who have contributed to this study, especially Prof. Runguo Zang, Dr. Yi Ding and Dr. Xinghui Lu in the Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry for their assistance in the formation of idea in the article. We are appreciating the constructive comments from the two anonymous referees, which have greatly improved the manuscript. This study was funded by the National Nonprofit Institute Research Grant of the Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAFYBB2014MA005), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41471048), and National Nonprofit Institute Research Grant of the Institute of Forest Ecology, Environmental and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAFIFEEP2015B02).

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Jihong Huang, Keping Ma and Jianhua Huang designed the study. Jihong Huang collected data. Jihong Huang and Jianhua Huang carried out the data analysis. Jihong Huang, Keping Ma and Jianhua Huang wrote and reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Keping Ma.

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The research doesn’t involve human participants and animals.

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Handling editor: Yunpeng Zhao.

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Supplementary material 1 (PDF 372 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (PDF 168 kb)

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Information on Electronic Supplementary Material

Online Resource 1. Reference list that we have consulted to collect distribution information of Chinese seed plants.

Online Resource 2. Inflection points by using a proper Taylor regression procedure in Package RootsExtremaInflections of R. The value of the measured inflection point is 33.879, while the value of the estimated inflection point is 35.441.

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Huang, J., Ma, K. & Huang, J. Phytogeographical patterns of genera of endemic flora in relation to latitudinal and climatic gradients in China. Plant Syst Evol 303, 689–698 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-017-1401-3

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