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Many nature reserves are established to protect the habitat needs of particular endangered species of interest but their effectiveness for protecting other species is questionable. In this study, this effectiveness was evaluated in a nature reserve network located in the Qinling Mountains, Shaanxi Province, China. The network of reserves was established mainly for the conservation of the giant panda, a species considered as a surrogate for the conservation of many other endangered species in the region. The habitat suitability of nine protected species, including the giant panda, was modeled by using Maximum Entropy (MAXENT) and their spatial congruence was analyzed. Habitat suitability of these species was also overlapped with nature reserve boundaries and their management zones (i.e., core, buffer and experimental zones). Results show that in general the habitat of the giant panda constitutes a reasonable surrogate of the habitat of other protected species, and giant panda reserves protect a relatively high proportion of the habitat of other protected species. Therefore, giant panda habitat conservation also allows the conservation of the habitat of other protected species in the region. However, a large area of suitable habitat was excluded from the nature reserve network. In addition, four species exhibited a low proportion of highly suitable habitat inside the core zones of nature reserves. It suggests that a high proportion of suitable habitat of protected species not targeted for conservation is located in the experimental and buffer zones, thus, is being affected by human activities. To increase their conservation effectiveness, nature reserves and their management zones need to be re-examined in order to include suitable habitat of more endangered species. The procedures described in this study can be easily implemented for the conservation of many endangered species not only in China but in many other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is threatening global ecosystems through its impact on the survival of individual species and their ecological functions. Despite the important role of understorey plants in forest ecosystems, climate impact assessments on understorey plants and their role in supporting wildlife habitat are scarce in the literature. Here we assess climate-change impacts on understorey bamboo species with an emphasis on their ecological function as a food resource for endangered giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). An ensemble of bamboo distribution projections associated with multiple climate-change projections and bamboo dispersal scenarios indicates a substantial reduction in the distributional ranges of three dominant bamboo species in the Qinling Mountains, China during the twenty-first century. As these three species comprise almost the entire diet of the panda population in the region, the projected changes in bamboo distribution suggest a potential shortage of food for this population, unless alternative food sources become available. Although the projections were developed under unavoidable simplifying assumptions and uncertainties, they indicate potential challenges for panda conservation and underscore the importance of incorporating interspecific interactions into climate-change impact assessments and associated conservation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]