Proceedings B Publishes Research Results of Giant Panda Research Team at CWNU Online

The giant panda is sitting and having a rest [Photo by Xu Jun]

On June 24, 2020, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (abbreviated as Proceedings B) published online the latest research result of the China West Normal University Giant Panda Research Team, titled "Climate change and landscape-use patterns influence recent past distribution of giant pandas". The research results not only reveal the impact of climate change on the distribution of giant pandas, but also indirectly prove the significant effectiveness of China's major ecological construction projects within the habitat of giant pandas, which has important guiding significance for the ongoing construction of giant panda national parks.

In the past 20 years, the number and habitat area of giant pandas have increased, largely due to the establishment of protected areas and the implementation of relevant protection policies. However, it is worrisome that current species distribution models based on climate change predict that climate change will reduce the habitat range of giant pandas, and relevant protection policies and plans need to consider both human landscape and climate factors.

To solve this scientific problem, the giant panda research team led by researcher Zhang Zejun, together with scientists from the San Diego Zoo, the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chengdu Institute of Biology, built a species distribution model based on the distribution data, climate data and ecological landscape data of giant pandas in the past 30 years, Evaluate the relative roles of past climate and ecological landscape factors in influencing the geographical distribution pattern of giant pandas. The results showed that although climate factors are important factors affecting the distribution of giant pandas, their importance gradually weakens over time, while the role of ecological landscape factors gradually strengthens. These research results indicate that the distribution of giant pandas has indeed been affected by climate change over the past 30 years, but habitat conservation interventions may be increasingly eliminating these negative impacts.