Effects of Climate and Land Use on Different Facets of Mammal Diversity in Giant Panda Range

Understanding the patterns and drivers of different facets of biodiversity is crucial for biodiversity conservation under global environmental change. In this study, we present the first assessment of the patterns of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity for 171 mammals in the giant panda range and their associations with climate, land use factors and topographic heterogeneity. We found that functional diversity showed a very different pattern with species richness and phylogenetic diversity. Additionally, mammal assemblages were more functionally diverse but phylogenetically similar than expected by chance in very few regions after controlling for species richness. Furthermore, species richness was positively correlated with topographic heterogeneity, the proportion of forest, mean annual temperature and temperature anomaly and negatively correlated with annual precipitation and precipitation anomaly between current and historical periods, while both functional and phylogenetic diversity are predominantly correlated with climate factors. Specifically, higher functional and phylogenetic diversity was mainly found in regions with a lower proportion of cropland, annual precipitation, mean annual temperature and precipitation anomaly between current and historical periods. These results indicate the large mismatches of driving factors between taxonomic diversity and the other diversity facets and the importance of contemporary climate and land use conditions and climate anomaly between current and historical periods in determining mammal functional and phylogenetic diversity in the giant panda range. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of integrating multiple dimensions of diversity to infer the underlying processes determining the spatial pattern of biodiversity and to better inform conservation management and planning.