Forestry and Grassland Science Popularization | Biodiversity Conservation in China - Hunan Forestry Chapter Dongting Lake Zhangjiajie National Forest Park Mangshan National Nature Reserve Lake South Forest Industry Chapter Wildlife Forest Ecosystem Wetland Ecosystem Grassland Ecosystem

In April 2018, when Inspecting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in Yueyang, Hunan Province, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that restoring the ecological environment of the Yangtze River is a difficult task entrusted to us by the new era and the ardent expectation of the people. The top priority at present is to stop disorderly development, limit the total amount of pollutant discharge, and crack down on illegal discharge, illegal sand mining and other acts that damage the coastal ecology in a strict and rapid manner according to law. We will never allow the ecological environment of the Yangtze River to continue to deteriorate in the hands of our generation, and we must leave a clean and beautiful Yangtze River for future generations.

General Secretary Xi Jinping also pointed out: Hunan has many famous mountains and rivers, rich water resources, and beautiful natural scenery, and it is necessary to truly protect the ecosystem of one mountain, one water, one grass and one tree.

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Dongting Lake</h1>

Dongting Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in China and the best-preserved natural seasonal lake, which is the "mother lake" of Hunan. Dongting Lake has a pleasant climate and excellent natural resources such as water, soil and biology, and is known as the "kidney of the Yangtze River" and "the pearl of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River". It consists of East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve, West Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve, South Dongting Lake Provincial Nature Reserve and Hengling Lake Provincial Nature Reserve. In the Dongting Lake Wetland Nature Reserve, 873 species of vascular plants were recorded, including 1 species of national grade I protected plants, namely lettuce, and 2 species of national grade II protected plants, namely lotus and wild ling. 53 species of mammals were recorded, accounting for 50.9% of the 104 mammal species in Hunan Province, of which the national Grade I protected animals were elk, white mullet and Yangtze River finless porpoise, and 4 species of national Grade II protected animals. It has the largest natural elk population in China, with about 210 animals, and 110 Yangtze River finless porpoises, a critically endangered animal of the IUCN. Dongting Lake has recorded more than 300 species of birds, including 7 species of national grade I protected birds, 39 species of national level II protected birds, including the Oriental White Stork, the Black Stork, the Chinese Autumn Sand Duck, the White-tailed Sea Eagle, the White Crane, the White-headed Crane and the Great Bustard, and 19 species of endangered birds in the IUCN Red List, including 3 species of critically endangered species, 5 endangered species and 11 species of vulnerable birds. According to monitoring, the number of birds in the Spring Lake area increased to 247,000 in 2020.

Dongting Lake is not only an important wintering ground for waterfowl in China's wetlands, but also an important breeding and resting place. It inhabits hundreds of thousands of water birds such as geese, ducks and sandpipers. It has a very important position in regional species conservation networks such as the Northeast Asia Crane Migration Network, the East Asian Geese and Duck Migration Network, and the East Asian-Australian Wading Bird Migration Network.

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Zhangjiajie National Forest Park</h1>

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is located in the eastern section of the Wuling Mountains, with rich forest resources and unique "Zhangjiajie landform", that is, quartz sandstone peak forest valley landform is famous in the world, the natural scenery is strange with peaks, valleys are prominent, and forests are beautiful, and there is a reputation of "three thousand strange peaks, eight hundred beautiful waters". Zhangjiajie sandstone peak forest landform is a unique landform and natural geographical characteristics, peak forest concentrated distribution area of 86 square kilometers, more than 3,000 Qi peaks, different forms, magnificent momentum. Zhangjiajie takes the unique sandstone peak forest landform landscape as the core, takes the karst landform landscape as the background, and has both geological relics and streams and valleys, which constitute a unique combination of sandstone peak forest landforms and has rich landscape diversity.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is located in zhangjiajie city in the northwest of Hunan Province, with a total area of 296 square kilometers, is the earliest national forest park in China, listed in the World Natural Heritage List by the United Nations, and belongs to the Global Geopark. Zhangjiajie is rich in wild animal and plant resources, with 751 species of woody plants, 41 species of birds, and 28 species of mammals, which is known as "natural botanical garden" and "animal kingdom". The negative oxygen ion content per cubic centimeter of air reaches 100,000 to 200,000, which is known as "natural oxygen bar".

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Mangshan National Nature Reserve</h1>

Hunan Mangshan National Nature Reserve, located in the south of Yizhang County, Chenzhou City, was established in 1958, is the earliest nature reserve in Hunan Province, has an important impact on China's biodiversity conservation and is listed in the hinterland of Nanling Mountain, one of the 35 priority biodiversity conservation areas in China, and is a "cross" intersection between the north-south transition of the flora of South China and Central China and the east-west intersection of flora and fauna of East China and Southwest China.

Mangshan National Nature Reserve has a total area of 19,833 hectares, a forest coverage rate of 99.08%, and has recorded 411 species of vertebrates, including 4 species of national grade I protected animals, namely the yellow-bellied horned pheasant, the white-necked long-tailed pheasant, the clouded leopard and the forest musk, and 42 species of national grade II protected animals. The Mangshan soldering ironhead snake is the largest known species of venomous snake, and was added to the IUCN Red List in 1996, recording 509 species of insects. There are 2400 species of vascular plants, 222 species of ferns, including 3 species of national grade I protected plants, namely southern yew tree, Bole tree and lettuce, and 21 species of national grade II protected plants.

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > The Forestry Chapter in The South of the Lake </h1>

Hunan Province is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, with a total area of 211,800 square kilometers, a dense river network and a developed water system, and is named "Hunan" because of its large area located south of Dongting Lake. The Xiang River is the largest river in Hunan and one of the seven major tributaries of the Yangtze River. Hunan topography belongs to the transition zone from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to the Jiangnan Hills and the Nanling Mountains to the Jianghan Plain, and the landform is dominated by the flowing water landform, the natural resources of light and hot water are abundant, and the biodiversity is rich, which is a precious biological gene bank in China and even the world.

Hunan has a total of 584 nature reserves of various types at all levels, which protects important ecosystems, habitats of wild animals and plants and genetic resources of wild animals and plants in Hunan on the spot. At the same time, Hunan has also established 12 institutions such as botanical gardens, wildlife parks and wildlife rescue and breeding centers, and has protected a large number of wild plants and rare animals in ex situ.

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > wildlife</h1>

There are 1,007 species of vertebrates in Hunan Province, including 220 species of fish, 505 species of birds, 73 species of amphibians, 98 species of reptiles, and 111 species of mammals, of which 111 species of wild animals under national key protection, including 21 species of national level I protected animals such as forest musk, elk and South China tiger, and 90 species of national level II protected animals such as black bears.

Red-billed acacia leiothrix lutea

Merops viridis

Chinese Autumn Sand Duck Mergus squamatus

Swan Cygnus colunbianus

Yellow-bellied horned Tragopan caboti

Red-bellied pheasant Chrysolophus pictus

White Egret Lophura nythemera

Collared Owl Otus bakkamoena

Giant salamander Andrias davidianus

White-lined tree frog Rhacophorus leucofasciatus

Odorrana yizhangensis

Moschus berezovskii

South China tiger Panthera tigris Amoyensis

Clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa

Black Bear Ursus thibetanus

Liuyang Yao salamander, a newly discovered species in Liuyang Dawei Mountain

There are 6137 species of vascular plants in Hunan Province, including 642 species of ferns and 5495 species of seed plants, including 13 species of national grade I protected plant resources such as fir and silver fir, and 43 species of national grade II protected plants such as Minnan and villus acacia.

Decidua Manglietia decidua

Bretschneidera sinensis

Villicinol Gleditsia japonica

Davidia involucrata

Basswood heather Photinia davidsoniae

Cypripedium fasciolatum

Saprophytic orchid Odontochilus saprophyticus

Primulina tabacum

< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > forest ecosystem</h1>

Hunan Province belongs to the subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest area, with abundant vegetation and evergreen in all seasons. The total forest area is 190 million mu, and the forest land area is 183 million mu, including the national public welfare forest area of 59.0325 million mu, the provincial public welfare forest area of 15.33 million mu, the living standing wood accumulation is 595 million cubic meters, and the forest coverage rate is 59.9%. The forest ecosystem has 5 forest types, 12 vegetation groups, 23 vegetation subgroups, 63 groups, and 143 biomes. There are 122 forest parks at or above the provincial level, including 64 national forest parks.

Daweishan National Forest Park

Big Bear Mountain National Forest Park

Yongxing Danxia National Forest Park

Wuyunjie National Nature Reserve

Hujushan National Nature Reserve

Huangsang National Nature Reserve

Golden Boy Mountain National Nature Reserve

Eagle's Mouth Boundary National Nature Reserve

Borrow the Mother Creek National Nature Reserve

Rucheng Jiulongjiang National Forest Park

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > wetland ecosystem</h1>

Hunan Province is one of the provinces with the richest wetland resources in China, with a total wetland area of 15.3 million mu, a wetland protection area of 11.5905 million mu, and a wetland protection rate of 75.77%. Hunan has built 3 wetlands of international importance, 5 wetlands of national importance, 45 nature reserves of various wetland types, and 78 wetland parks, including 70 national wetland parks.

Yuanshui National Wetland Park

Shuangpai Riyuehu National Wetland Park

Shuyuanzhou National Wetland Park

Leishui National Wetland Park

Shimen Xianyanghu National Wetland Park

Songyahu National Wetland Park

Yangsha Lake - Donghu National Wetland Park

Changsha Yanghu National Wetland Park

< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > grassland ecosystem</h1>

Grassland is known as the "skin of the earth", and together with forests and wetlands, it constitutes the main body of Hunan's ecological security barrier. The grassland area of Hunan Province is 1.1669 million hectares, accounting for 5.5% of the total land area of Hunan, making it one of the largest provinces and regions in southern China. Due to the abundant water and heat in Hunan, the grassland yield is relatively high, generally reaching 900 kg per mu, which is about 4 to 5 times that of the northern grassland. Grassland vegetation coverage is high, Hunan grassland vegetation coverage is about 79.65%, grassland comprehensive vegetation coverage of 85.44%, far higher than the national average, in the forefront of China.

Hunan Province has a variety of grassland types, a wide variety of pasture grass types, a total of warm shrubs, hot shrubs, lowland meadows, mountain meadows 4 categories, with qiao shrubman, reed, white grass, five-section mango, white grass with shrubs and other 27 kinds of grassland types, distributed 868 species of forage plants, mainly grasses, legumes, asteraceae, sedges and rosaceae plants. The grassland ecosystem is stable, the ecological environment is good, most grasslands have rich tourism resources, such as Nanshan Pasture is an integral part of Nanshan National Park, Golden Pasture is an extension of Kunshan Mountain, Nantan Grassland is a supplement to Zhangjiajie scenery, and most grasslands are cool and pleasant in summer, ice and fog in winter, with unique climatic conditions and resource development potential.

Mulberry South Beach Meadow

Jiangyong Swallow Mountain Grassland

Chengbu Nanshan Grassland

Xinning Golden Pasture

Yangtian Lake Pasture

Comparison of the effectiveness of grassland and rock desertification control

(News source: China Wildlife Conservation Association public number editor Wang Qiang)