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Vol. 52, 2013
Hotspot analysis of Taiwanese breeding birds to determine
gaps in the protected area network
Tsai-Yu
Wu1, Bruno A Walther2,3, Yi-Hsiu Chen1,
Ruey-Shing Lin4 and Pei-Fen Lee1,5*
1Institute
of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei
106, Taiwan
2College of International Studies, National Pingtung
University of Science and Technology, Neipu, Pingtung 91201, Taiwan
3Master Program in Global Health and Development,
College of Public Health and Nutrition, Taipei Medical University, 250
Wu-Hsing St, Taipei 110, Taiwan
4Endemic Species Research Institute, 1 Ming-Shen East
Road, Jiji, Nantou 552, Taiwan
5Biodiversity Research Center, National Taiwan
University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Abstract
Background: Although Taiwan is an
important hotspot of avian endemism, efforts to use available
distributional information for conservation analyses are so far
incomplete. For the first time, we present a hotspot analysis of
Taiwanese breeding birds with sufficient sampling coverage for
distribution modeling. Furthermore, we improved previous modeling
efforts by combining several of the most reliable modeling techniques
to build an ensemble model for each species. These species maps were
added together to generate hotspot maps using the following criteria:
total species richness, endemic species richness, threatened species
richness, and rare species richness. We then proceeded to use these
hotspot maps to determine the 5% most species-rich grid cells (1)
within the entire island of Taiwan and (2) within the entire island of
Taiwan but outside of protected areas.
Results: Almost all of the species richness and
hotspot analyses revealed that mountainous regions of Taiwan hold most
of Taiwan's avian biodiversity. The only substantial unprotected region
which was consistently highlighted as an important avian hotspot is a
large area of unprotected mountains in Taiwan's northeast (mountain
regions around Nan-ao) which should become a high priority for future
fieldwork and conservation efforts. In contrast, other unprotected
areas of high conservation value were just spatial extensions of areas
already protected in the central and southern mountains. To combine the
results of our four hotspot criteria, we assessed which grid cells were
the most valuable according to all four criteria. Again, we found the
Nan-ao mountain regions to be important. We also showed that different
hotspot criteria only partially overlapped and sometimes barely at all.
Conclusions: Therefore, to protect
areas based on only one hotspot criterion (total species richness)
would not protect areas based on other hotspot criteria (endemic
species richness, threatened species richness, or rare species
richness) in Taiwan.
Key words: Hotspots; Biodiversity;
Conservation priorities; GIS; Distribution modeling.
*Correspondence: E-mail: leepf@ntu.edu.tw
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