Abstract
Biodiversity is vital for the integrity and stability of ecosystems and sustainable development. Karst regions of Southwest China is featured for undulating and broken karst terrain as well as high plant diversity. Land use changes induced by the growing population and expanding human settlement have threatened biodiversity preservation in this region. However, the impact of urban expansion on plant diversity remains unclear here. This study focuses on how expanding countryside landscapes affect the recovery rate of plant diversity and demonstrate how urban expansion affects plant diversity conservation in karst regions of Southwest China. In situ biodiversity investigations and multisource remote sensing images were combined to analyze the role of human settlement evolution in the conservation of plant diversity using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Unmanned vehicle images, historical aerial photographs, and long-term remote sensing images were used to observe the human settlement pattern changes over 40 yr and found that plant diversity is restored faster in countryside ecosystems than in island ecosystems restricted by water. Forests, however, contribute the most to plant diversity conservation in both ecosystems. While the forest area is stable during urban expansion, massive forest patches play an essential role in plant diversity conservation. Arable lands and grasslands shrank but with a fragmenting trend, which was conducive to preserving plant diversity, whereas increased and regularized large patches of built-up areas were not beneficial to plant diversity. Accordingly, forest protection should be prioritized to coordinate future socioeconomic development and plant diversity conservation in karst and broader regions. Furthermore, large built-up patches should be limited, and the irregularity should be improved during urban expansion. Irregular shaped cultivated land and grassland were suggested to promote biological information exchanges as landscape corridors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aitken S N, Yeaman S, Holliday J A et al., 2008. Adaptation, migration or extirpation: climate change outcomes for tree populations. Evolutionary Applications, 1(1): 95–111. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-4571.2007.00013.x
Assessment M E, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: A Framework for Assessment. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.
Bengtsson J, Bullock J M, Egoh B et al., 2019. Grasslands-more important for ecosystem services than you might think. Ecosphere, 10(2): e02582. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2582
Brandon K, Gorenflo L J, Rodrigues A S L et al., 2005. Reconciling biodiversity conservation, people, protected areas, and agricultural suitability in Mexico. World Development, 33(9): 1403–1418. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.10.005
Čeplová N, Kalusová V, Lososová Z, 2017. Effects of settlement size, urban heat island and habitat type on urban plant biodiversity. Landscape and Urban Planning, 159: 15–22. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.11.004
Crouzeilles R, Maurenza D, Prieto P V et al., 2021. Associations between socio-environmental factors and landscape-scale biodiversity recovery in naturally regenerating tropical and subtropical forests. Conservation Letters, 14(2): e12768. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12768
Daskalova G N, Myers-Smith I H, Bjorkman A D et al., 2020. Landscape-scale forest loss as a catalyst of population and biodiversity change. Science, 368(6497): 1341–1347. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba1289
Fischer J, Hartel T, Kuemmerle T, 2012. Conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes. Conservation Letters, 5(3): 167–175. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00227.x
Ford D, Williams P, 2007. Karst Hydrogeology and Geomorphology. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Gámez-Virués S, Perović D J, Gossner M M et al., 2015. Landscape simplification filters species traits and drives biotic homogenization. Nature Communications, 6(1): 8568. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9568
Geekiyanage N, Goodale U M, Cao K F et al., 2019. Plant ecology of tropical and subtropical karst ecosystems. Biotropica, 51(5): 626–640. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12696
Gibson L, Lee T M, Koh L P et al., 2011. Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity. Nature, 478(7369): 378–381. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10425
Habel J C, Dengler J, Janišová M et al., 2013. European grassland ecosystems: threatened hotspots of biodiversity. Biodiversity and Conservation, 22(10): 2131–2138. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-013-0537-x
Hadley A S, Frey S J K, Robinson W D et al., 2018. Forest fragmentation and loss reduce richness, availability, and specialization in tropical hummingbird communities. Biotropica, 50(1): 74–83. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12487
Hughes C, Eastwood R, 2006. Island radiation on a continental scale: Exceptional rates of plant diversification after uplift of the Andes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(27): 10334–10339. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0601928103
Kallimanis A S, Bergmeier E, Panitsa M et al., 2010. Biogeographical determinants for total and endemic species richness in a continental archipelago. Biodiversity and Conservation, 19(5): 1225–1235. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9748-6
Katovai E, Burley A L, Mayfield M M, 2012. Understory plant species and functional diversity in the degraded wet tropical forests of Kolombangara Island, Solomon Islands. Biological Conservation, 145(1): 214–224. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2011.11.008
Liu B, Zhang M, Bussmann W R et al., 2018. Species richness and conservation gap analysis of karst areas: a case study of vascular plants from Guizhou, China. Global Ecology and Conservation, 16: e00460. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00460
Lou H Z, Scovronick N, Yang S T et al., 2021. A balance exists between vegetation recovery and human development over the past 30 years in the Guizhou Plateau, China. Ecological Indicators, 133: 108357. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108357
MacArthur R H, Wilson E O, 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Manning A D, Fischer J, Lindenmayer D B, 2006. Scattered trees are keystone structures — Implications for conservation. Biological Conservation, 132(3): 311–321. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2006.04.023
Marques A, Martins I S, Kastner T et al., 2019. Increasing impacts of land use on biodiversity and carbon sequestration driven by population and economic growth. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3(4): 628–637. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0824-3
Martin D A, Osen K, Grass I et al., 2020. Land-use history determines ecosystem services and conservation value in tropical agroforestry. Conservation Letters, 13(5): e12740. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12740
Mayfield M M, Boni M F, Daily G C et al., 2005. Species and functional diversity of native and human-dominated plant communities. Ecology, 86(9): 2365–2372. doi: https://doi.org/10.1890/05-0141
Mayfield M M, Daily G C, 2005. Countryside biogeography of neotropical herbaceous and shrubby plants. Ecological Applications, 15(2): 423–439. doi: https://doi.org/10.1890/03-5369
Mendenhall C D, Sekercioglu C H, Brenes F O et al., 2011. Predictive model for sustaining biodiversity in tropical countryside. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(39): 16313–16316. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1111687108
Mendenhall C D, Kappel C V, Ehrlich P R, 2013. Countryside biogeography. In: Levin S A (ed). Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. 2nd ed. Waltham, MA: Academic Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-384719-5.00329-4
Mendenhall C D, Karp D S, Meyer C F J et al., 2014. Predicting biodiversity change and averting collapse in agricultural landscapes. Nature, 509(7499): 213–217. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13139
Mendenhall C D, Shields-Estrada A, Krishnaswami A J et al., 2016. Quantifying and sustaining biodiversity in tropical agricultural landscapes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(51): 14544–14551. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604981113
Mendenhall C D, 2020. Countryside biogeography: conceptualizing where life lives in the Anthropocene. Journal of Biogeography, 47(8): 1846–1848. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13882
Michael C, Stefanie H, Jan B, 2014. Is there any empirical support for biodiversity offset policy? Ecological Applications, 24: 617–632. doi: https://doi.org/10.1890/13-0243.1
Miller J R, Hobbs R J, 2002. Conservation where people live and work. Conservation Biology, 16(2): 330–337. doi: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2002.00420.x
Myers N, Mittermeier R A, Mittermeier C G et al., 2000. Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature, 403(6772): 853–858. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/35002501
Newbold T, Hudson L N, Hill S L L et al., 2015. Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity. Nature, 520(7545): 45–50. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14324
Nitzu E, Vlaicu M, Giurginca A et al., 2018. Assessing preservation priorities of caves and karst areas using the frequency of endemic cave-dwelling species. International Journal of Speleology, 47(1): 43–52. doi: https://doi.org/10.5038/1827-806x.47.1.2147
Ocampo-Peñuela N, Jenkins C N, Vijay V et al., 2016. Incorporating explicit geospatial data shows more species at risk of extinction than the current Red List. Science Advances, 2(11): e1601367. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601367
Philpott S M, Arendt W J, Armbrecht I et al., 2008. Biodiversity Loss in Latin American Coffee Landscapes: review of the Evidence on Ants, Birds, and Trees. Conservation Biology, 22(5): 1093–1105. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01029.x
Ren Y J, Lu Y H, Fu B J, 2016. Quantifying the impacts of grassland restoration on biodiversity and ecosystem services in China: a meta-analysis. Ecological Engineering, 95: 542–550. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.06.082
Rozendaal D M A, Bongers F, Mitchell Aide T et al., 2019. Biodiversity recovery of Neotropical secondary forests. Science Advances, 5(3): eaau3114. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau3114
Sagwe R N, Muya S M, Maranga R, 2015. Effects of land use patterns on the diversity and conservation status of butterflies in Kisii highlands, Kenya. Journal of Insect Conservation, 19(6): 1119–1127. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-015-9826-x
Shannon C E, Weaver W, 1949. The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Sirami C, Gross N, Baillod A B et al., 2019. Increasing crop heterogeneity enhances multitrophic diversity across agricultural regions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(33): 16442–16447. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906419116
Stein A, Gerstner K, Kreft H, 2014. Environmental heterogeneity as a universal driver of species richness across taxa, biomes and spatial scales. Ecology Letters, 17(7): 866–880. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12277
Stuart Chapin III F, Díaz S, 2020. Interactions between changing climate and biodiversity: shaping humanity’s future. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(12): 6295–6296. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001686117d
Tong X W, Wang K L, Brandt M et al., 2016. Assessing future vegetation trends and restoration prospects in the karst regions of southwest China. Remote Sensing, 8(5): 357. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8050357
Tscharntke T, Tylianakis J M, Rand T A et al., 2012. Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes — eight hypotheses. Biological Reviews, 87(3): 661–685. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-185X.2011.00216.x
Tuck S L, Winqvist C, Mota F et al., 2014. Land-use intensity and the effects of organic farming on biodiversity: a hierarchical meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Ecology, 51(3): 746–755. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12219
Wang K L, Zhang C H, Chen H S et al., 2019. Karst landscapes of China: patterns, ecosystem processes and services. Landscape Ecology, 34(12): 2743–2763. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-019-00912-w
Watson J E M, Evans T, Venter O et al., 2018. The exceptional value of intact forest ecosystems. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2(4): 599–610. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0490-x
Williams J J, Newbold T, 2020. Local climatic changes affect biodiversity responses to land use: a review. Diversity and Distributions, 26(1): 76–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12999
Wittemyer G, Elsen P, Bean W T et al., 2008. Accelerated human population growth at protected area edges. Science, 321(5885): 123–126. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1158900
Yang S T, Li C J, Lou H Z et al., 2020. Performance of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in calculating the flood peak discharge of ephemeral rivers combined with the incipient motion of moving stones in arid ungauged regions. Remote Sensing, 12(10): 2610. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12101610
Yang S T, Li C J, Lou H Z et al., 2021. Role of the countryside landscapes for sustaining biodiversity in karst areas at a semi centennial scale. Ecological Indicators, 123: 107315. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107315
Zhang Chunbin, Yang Shengtian, Zhao Changsen et al., 2018. Topographic data accuracy verification of small consumer UAV. Journal of Remote Sensing, 22(1): 185–195. (in Chinese)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Foundation item: Under the auspices of the Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Karst Science Research Center of Guizhou Province (No. U1812401), the Science and Technology Support Program of Guizhou (No. 20204Y016), the Guizhou Province Philosophy and Social Science Planning Key Project (No. 19GZZD07)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, S., Li, C., Lou, H. et al. The Impact of Urban Expansion on Plant Diversity Change in Karst Regions of Southwest China. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 32, 493–505 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-022-1279-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-022-1279-z