Alpine ecosystems of northwest Yunnan, China: An initial assessment for conservation

Journal of Mountain Science

Volumn 4, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 181-192

  Sherman, Ruth ^a   Mullen, Renee ^b   Li, Haomin ^b   Fang, Zhendong ^c   Wang, Yi ^d  

^a Department of Obstetrics Gynecology   (United States)

^b THE NATURE CONSERVANCY   (United States)

^c Shangri La Alpine Botanical Garden   (China)

^d INSTITUTE OF BOTANY   (China)

Author keywords

Alpine ecosystems; Biodiversity hotspot; China; Cluster analysis; Conservation action; Grazing; Hengduan Mountains; Non metric multidimensional scaling; Plant community ecology; Plant species richness; World heritage site; Yunnan Great Rivers Project (YGRP)

Indexed keywords

EID: 34648825877     PISSN: 16726316     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11629-007-0181-6     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. Baker, B., Moseley, R. 2007. Changes in the Hengduan Mountains: Advancing treeline and retreating glaciers. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research 39: 200-209.
2. Baker, B., Bachelet, D., Daly, C., Jian, M., Moseley, R., Xuezheng, S., Shlisky, A., Jihua, S. 2005. (http://conserveonline.org/docs/2006/02/ Baker_et_al_2005_GLOCHAMORE.pdf)
3. Bandyopadhyay, J. 1992. The Himalaya: Prospects for and constraints on sustainable development. In: Stone, P.B. The State of the World's Mountains (ed.), Pp. 93-126. Zed Books Ltd., London and New Jersey.
4. Barthlott, W., Lauer, W., Placke, A. 1996. Global distribution of species diversity in vascular plants: Towards a world map of phytodiversity. Erdkunde 50: 317-327.
5. Boufford, D., Dijk, P. 1999. South-central China. In: Mettermeier, R.A., Myers, N., Mittermeier, C.G. (eds.) Hotspots: Earth's Biologically richest and most endangered terrestrial ecoregions, Cemex, Mexico City, Pp. 339-350
6. Buntaine, M.T., Mullen, R.B., Lassoie, J.P. 2006. Human use and conservation planning in alpine areas of northwestern Yunnan, China. Environment, Development and Sustainability, Published Online: 21 Feb. 2006. (http://www.springerlink.com/content/1573-2975/?k=buntaine)
7. Clarke, K.R. 1993. Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure. Australian Journal of Ecology 18: 117-143.
8. Colwell, R.K. 2005. EstimateS: Statistical estimation of species richness and shared species from samples. Version 7.5. User's Guide and application published at: http://purl.oclc.org/estimates.
9. CI. 2006. Conservation International's Biodiversity Hotspots. http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots/china
10. Deng, M., Zhou, Z.K. 2004. Seed plant diversity on screes from northwest Yunnan. Acta Botanica Yunnanica 26: 23-34.
11. Erschbamer, B., Virtanen, R., Nagy, L. 2003. The impacts of vertebrate grazers on vegetation in European high mountains. In: Nagy L, Grabherr G, Körner Ch, Thompson, D.B.A. (ed.) Alpine Biodiversity in Europe, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, Pp. 377-396.
12. Ferrier, S., Pressey, R.L., Barrett, T.W. 2000. A new predictor of the irreplaceability. of areas for achieving a conservation goal, its applicability to real-world planning, and a research agenda for further refinement. Biological Conservation 93: 303-325.
13. Ge, X.J., Zhang, L.B., Yuan, Y.M., Hao, G., Chiang, T.Y. 2005. Strong genetic differentiation of the East-Himalayan Megacodon stylophorus (Gentianaceae) detected by inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR). Biodiversity and Conservation 14: 849-861.
14. Groves, C.R., Jensen, D.B., Valutis, L.L., Redford, K.H., Shaffer, M.L., Scott, J.M., Baumgartner, J.V., Higgins, J.V., Beck, M.W., Anderson, M.G. 2000. Planning for biodiversity conservation: Putting conservation science into practice. Bioscience 52: 499-512.
15. Hobohm, C. 2003. Characterization and ranking of biodiversity hotspots: centres of species richness and endemism. Biodiversity and Conservation 12: 279-287.
16. Klotzi, F. 1997. Biodiversity and vegetation belts in tropical and subtropical mountains. In: Messerli, B., Ives, J.D. (eds.) Mountains of the World: A Global Priority, Parthenon Publishing Group, New York. Pp. 232-235.
17. Körner, Ch. 2003. Alpine Plant Life. Functional Plant Ecology of High Mountain ecosystems, Vol 2E, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg.
18. Kruskal, J.B. 1964. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling: A numerical method. Psychometrika 29: 1-27.
19. Ma, C.L., Moseley, R.K., Chen, W.Y., Zhou, Z.K. 2007. Plant diversity and priority conservation areas of Northwestern Yunnan, China. Biodiversity and Conservation 16: 757-774.
20. Mather, P.M. 1976. Computational methods of multivariate analysis in physical geography. J. Wiley & Sons, London. 532 Pp.
21. McCune, B., Grace, J.B. 2002. Analysis of Ecological Communities. MjM Software Design, Gleneden Beach, Oregon, USA.
22. McCune, B., Mefford, M.J. 1999. PC-ORD. Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data. MjM Software Design, Gleneden Beach, Oregon, USA.
23. McNab, W.H. 1989. Terrain shape index: Quantifying effect of minor landforms on tree height. Forest Science 35: 91-104.
24. Meihe, G. 1997. Alpine vegetation types of the central Himalaya. In: Wiegolaski, F.E. (ed.) Ecosystems of the World 3. Polar and Alpine Tundra. Amsterdam. Pp 161-184.
25. Miller, D.J. 2000. Impacts of grazing in Himalayan and Tibetan Plateau rangelands. Northern Plains Associates (http://www.mtnforum.org)
26. Mittermeier, R., Meyers, N., Mittermeier, N., Gil, P., Ford, H. 1999. Hot spots: Earth's biologically richest and most endangered terrestrial ecoregions. Cemex, Conservation Int., Mexico City.
27. Mohamed-Saleem, M.A., Woldu, Z. 2002. Land use and biodiversity in the upland pastures in Ethiopia. In: Körner, Ch., Spehn, E.M. (eds.) Mountain Biodiversity: A Global Assessment, Boca Raton, Parthenon Publishing Group, Pp. 277-282.
28. Myers, N., Mittermeier, R.A., Mittermeier, C.G., da Fonseca, G.A.B., Kent, J. 2000. Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403: 853-858.
29. Olson, D.M., Dinerstein, E. 1998. The Global 200: A representation approach to conserving Earth's most biologically valuable ecoregions. Conservation Biology 12: 502-515.
30. OSU-SCAS. 2006. The Climate Source, Inc. Oregon State University. (http://www.climatesource.com/cn/fact_scheets/yunnanppt_xl.jpg)
31. Pressey, R.L., Johnson, I.R., Wilson, P.D. 1994. Shades of irreplaceability: Towards a measure of the contribution of sites to a reservation goal. Biodiversity and Conservation 3: 242-262.
32. Salick, J., Anderson, J.D., Woo, J., Sherman, R.E., Cili, N., Yin, X.Z., Na, A., Sonam, Dorje. 2004. Tibetan ethnobotany and gradient analysis: Menri (Medicine Mountains), Eastern Himalayas. In The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. Bridging Scales and Epistemologies: Linking Local Knowledge and Global Science in Multi-Scale Assessments. Alexandria, Egypt. (http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/ about.Meetings.bridging.proceedings.aspx#2j)
33. TNC. 2006. The Nature Conservancy in China. (http://www.nature.org/ wherewework/asiapacific/china/strategies)
34. Vane-Wright, R.I. 1996. Identifying priorities for the conservation of biodiversity: Systematic biological criteria within a socio-political framework. In: Gaston, K.J. (ed.) Biodiversity: A Biology of Numbers and Difference, Blackwell, Oxford Pp. 309-344.
35. Xu, G., Kruse, C. 2003. Economic impact of tourism in China. In: Lew, A.A., Yu, L., Ap, J., Zhang, G.R. (eds.) Tourism in China, New York, Haworth Hospitality Press, Pp. 83-102.
36. Xu, J., Wilkes, A. 2003. Biodiversity impact analysis in northwest Yunnan, southwest China. Biodiversity and Conservation 13: 959-983.
37. Xu, J., Fox, J., Lu, X., Podger, N., Leisz, S., Ai, X. 1999. Effects of Swidden Cultivation, State Policies, and Customary Institutions on Land Cover in a Hani Village, Yunnan, China. Mountain Research and Development 19 (2):123-132.
38. YGRPPT (Yunnan Great Rivers Project Planning Team). 2002. Yunnan Great Rivers Project: Northwestern Yunnan Ecoregional Conservation Assessment, Kunming, China, The Nature Conservancy.