Current distribution and climatic range of the Japanese endemic conifer Thuja standishii (Cupressaceae)
2019
Worth, J.R.P. (Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI) (Japan). Department of Forest Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology)
Thuja standishii (Gordon) Carr. (Cupressaceae) is an important endemic conifer of Japan but unlike other endemic Cupressaceae species there is a general lack of information about the species including its current distribution, ecology and conservation status. This study investigated the geographic range of the species and evaluated the number of recent population extinctions using available published and online resources along with field based investigations. Additionally, the species potential range was investigated using species distribution modelling. Thuja standishii was found to have a wide range in Japan from 40.67° N in northern Honshu to 33.49° N in Shikoku occurring across a variety of habitats from warm temperate evergreen forest to near the alpine zone. The core of its range is in central Japan including in both high and low snow-fall mountain regions. On the other hand, the species is extremely rare in western Japan being confirmed at only eight locations including five sites in Chugoku and three in Shikoku. These include the most extreme warm-edge populations known in the species that were poorly predicted by the whole range species distribution model. These populations are of great conservation significance and either represent long term persistence in refugia isolated from the species core range in central Honshu or remnants of a formerly more widespread occurrence in the warm temperate zone of western Japan lost over millennia to human activity. Overall, the species population trajectory appears to be stable with evidence for three population losses only that occurred in the mid-20th century.
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