The Chinese water pine Glyptostrobus pensilis is the sole surviving species of the genus Glyptostrobus. It is endemic to southern China, central Vietnam, and eastern Laos, and today it is nearly extinct in the wild. Forest community characteristics and population structure of G. pensilis in China have remained unknown up to now. We investigated six swamp forest stands and analyzed their forest community characteristics (i.e. vertical stratification, species composition, and diversity) and population structure, including the frequency distribution of DBH (diameter at breast height) and age-classes as found in Fujian Province, southeastern China. The vertical stratifications of all the forest stands were rather simple. The remaining wild specimens ranged from roughly 15 to some 357 years for an average of ca. 85 years, with only a few individuals less than 20 years old. Compared with the stands and populations of G. pensilis in Vietnam, the taxonomic compositions of the stands in the two regions were different, except for the dominant species-G. pensilis. The Shannon-Wiener index showed the overstory of each stand had much lower diversity (0.26 on average) in Fujian Province than that (1.97 on average) in Vietnam, whereas the diversity indices were about the same (around 2.41) for the understories in the two regions. Furthermore, we discovered 18 G. pensilis seedlings at the study sites in Fujian Province. This discovery demonstrates that G. pensilis regeneration is extremely poor and its populations are declining, although these populations are relatively healthier than those in Vietnam.

The distribution of forest vegetation and forest carbon sequestration potential are significantly influenced by climate change. In this study, a map of the current distribution of vegetation in Yunnan Province was compiled based on data from remote sensing imagery from the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) from 2008 to 2011. A classification and regression tree (CART) model was used to predict the potential distribution of the main forest vegetation types in Yunnan Province and estimate the changes in carbon storage and carbon sequestration potential (CSP) in response to increasing temperature. The results show that the current total forest area in Yunnan Province is 1.86 × 10⁷ ha and that forest covers 48.63% of the area. As the temperature increases, the area of forest distribution first increases and then decreases, and it decreases by 11% when the temperature increases from 1.5 to 2 °C. The mean carbon density of the seven types of forest vegetation in Yunnan Province is 84.69 Mg/ha. The total carbon storage of the current forest vegetation in Yunnan Province is 871.14 TgC, and the CSP is 1100.61 TgC. The largest CSP (1114.82 TgC) occurs when the temperature increases by 0.5 °C. Incremental warming of 2 °C will sharply decrease the forest CSP, especially in those regions with mature coniferous forest vegetation. Semi-humid evergreen broad-leaved forests were highly sensitive to temperature changes, and the CSP of these forests will decrease with increasing temperature. Warm-hot coniferous forests have the greatest CSP in all simulation scenarios except the scenario of a 2 °C temperature increase. These results indicate that temperature increases can influence the CSP in Yunnan Province, and the largest impact emerged in the 2 °C increase scenario.

University campuses, as small and isolated areas of rapidly growing urban areas, can provide a unique opportunity for urban biodiversity research, conservation, education, and citizen science by monitoring assemblages of butterflies within their areas. We surveyed butterfly biodiversity in a rapidly developing urban area represented by the Chenggong Campus of Yunnan University in southwestern China using the Pollard walk method. In total, 3625 butterfly individuals belonging to 50 species, 35 genera, and six families were recorded in this survey. The results showed that the families Pieridae and Nymphalidae are the families with the highest species richness on the campus, and that the family Riodinidae contained the fewest species. Pieris rapae was the most common species, and seven species assessed by the IUCN Red List were recorded. Butterfly community structure varied across habitats and seasons on campus, and butterfly diversity was higher in spring and autumn than it was in summer and winter, as well as being higher in road habitats than in scenic habitats. Unavoidable urbanisation activities (construction, green space planning, etc.) may have influenced the composition and diversity of butterflies, and conserving urban butterfly diversity requires a balance between urban planning and habitat diversity. Finally, we encourage universities and research institutions to develop butterfly monitoring platforms for citizen scientists to participate in.

Relict subtropical coniferous forests in China face severe fragmentation, resulting in declining populations, and some are under significant threat from invasive alien species. Despite the crucial importance of understanding forest dynamics, knowledge gaps persist, particularly regarding the impact of invasive plants on vulnerable natives like Keteleeria evelyniana. In this study, we investigated the impact of invasive plants on the regeneration of forests dominated by K. evelyniana, a subtropical relict species in southwestern China. For this purpose, we characterized forest dynamics of 160 forest plots featuring K. evelyniana as the primary dominant species and determined whether the presence of invasive plants was correlated with regeneration of K. evelyniana. We identified four distinct forest types in which K. evelyniana was dominant. We found that radial growth of K. evelyniana trees is faster in younger age-classes today than it was for older trees at the same age. The population structure of K. evelyniana in each forest type exhibited a multimodal age-class distribution. However, three forest types lacked established saplings younger than 10 years old, a situation attributed to the dense coverage of the invasive alien Ageratina adenophora. This invasive species resulted in a reduction of understory species diversity. Additionally, our analysis uncovered a significant negative correlation in phylogenetic relatedness (net relatedness index) between native and invasive alien plant species in eastern Yunnan. This suggests closely related invasive species face heightened competition, hindering successful invasion. Taken together, our findings indicate that successful establishment and habitat restoration of K. evelyniana seedling/saplings require effective measures to control invasive plants.