The diversity of life-history traits in terrestrial vertebrates throughout China is influenced by both evolutionary and environmental causes.

• N.Chennakesavulu

  English

  Author

Evolutionary adaptations that mediate reactions to
external stimuli are represented by life-history
features. In addition to supporting the creation of
successful conservation and restoration plans,
analyzing variance in these characteristics offers
important insights into macroecological processes.
However, neither the processes influencing these
patterns nor the large-scale biogeographic patterns
in life-history characteristic diversity among
terrestrial vertebrates are fully understood. In order
to assess geographic patterns of trait diversity and
pinpoint underlying determinants, this study
combined life-history and spatial distribution data
for 2 334 terrestrial vertebrate species in China,
including 398 amphibians, 211 reptiles, 541
mammals, and 1,184 birds. In comparison to null
predictions, assemblages in South and Southwest
China showed high species richness, significant
assemblage-level evolutionary distinctiveness,
increased trait volumes, and higher trait densities,
suggesting functions as both evolutionary
museums and cradles. Assemblages in the Tibetan
Plateau, on the other hand, displayed low trait
densities but increased trait volumes, indicating
niche expansion among a few number of taxa. The
significance of niche packing prior to assemblages
reaching environmental carrying limitations is
highlighted by these findings. High evolutionary
distinctiveness assemblages tended to exhibit low
trait densities and high trait volumes, indicating a
stable correlation between functional
diversification and phylogenetic structure.
Amphibians were the most sensitive of the four
categories to The Creative Commons Attribution
Non-Commercial License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/),
which allows for unrestricted non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium as
long as the original work is properly cited, governs
the use of this open-access article.

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