More than just pandas: Urgent research needed on China's native plant biodiversity

Abstract

Conservation of threatened species is essential for achieving sustainable development goals and realizing ecological civilization in China. However, our new survey on endemic threatened angiosperms in the scientific publication database showed that there is still a serious bias in the species' selection and research topics. China's 2117 endemic threatened angiosperm species remain relatively understudied with 41 % of them being not included in any Chinese-language and English-language scientific publications. Furthermore, only 2 % of the 44,383 publications that mention threatened plant species are related to conservation research and over 75 % of them are found behind a paywall. We propose measures to increase and advance conservation research and protection for China's threatened plants, 1) improve long-term and comprehensive research on endemic threatened angiosperms in China, 2) combine conservation research and practices and transfer conservation knowledge to practices timely, 3) promote inter-governmental communication and cooperation, and 4) apply new technologies and methods to conservation studies and practices.