Protected areas (PAs) are cornerstones of biodiversity conservation, harbouring key mammal species such as apex predators that are important in maintaining trophic cascades and contribute to ecosystem resilience. However, whether PAs have preserved historical wildlife assemblages remains poorly quantified, mainly due to a lack of comparable data from historical and current periods. Here we used comprehensive data from historical investigations during the 1950s and 1970s, as well as current surveys based on 8,300 camera traps between 2008 and 2021 across 85 PAs in China, to assess range contractions of 82 large- and medium-bodied mammals. We found that carnivores disappeared from 59.4% of their historical sites, a rate much higher than that observed in ungulates (37.2%). Moreover, while 52.9% of PAs retained more than 70% of their ungulate species, over 70% of PAs lost over half of their carnivore species, with PAs in southern China being range contraction hotspots, particularly for carnivore species with larger body sizes and shorter generation lengths. Our findings reveal widespread range contraction of carnivores in China's PAs compared with historical periods, driven primarily by legacy effects of large-scale anthropogenic disturbances and human-wildlife conflict, necessitating initiatives to maintain and restore historical assemblages of carnivores alongside habitat protection.

Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research has shown that ecosystem functioning and stability are closely linked to biodiversity. A cornerstone of this field is the BEF-China research platform, i.e. the world’s largest forest biodiversity experiment in subtropical China. It has demonstrated that tree diversity enhances productivity, carbon sequestration and ecosystem stability. However, the strength of these positive tree diversity effects varies widely across forests, possibly because higher trophic levels (such as herbivores and predators) mediate how biodiversity influences ecosystem functioning.To better understand how tree diversity influences higher trophic levels and their contributions to forest functioning, the German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding the project MultiTroph. MultiTroph quantifies species interactions and integrates them into food webs to understand when and why ecosystem functions change or destabilise with species loss. We expect that trophic interaction networks reveal how species share or separate their ecological roles, with more niche overlap in species-rich forests and more niche specialisation in species-poor forests.Here, we outline our conceptual framework and research goals. We are convinced that MultiTroph will expand existing BEF research and provide a more holistic understanding of the role of multi-trophic food webs in forest ecosystems.

Protected areas often use a zoning management to balance conservation and sustainable development, yet its effectiveness for animal communities remains a critical knowledge gap. We investigated how reserve zoning and human disturbance jointly shape bird diversity in a restored subtropical forest in Southeast China. Using a suite of statistical models on grid-based survey data, we analyzed community, functional groups, and species-level responses to zoning, human disturbance, and other landscape factors. Our findings revealed a significant mismatch between management areas and avian diversity patterns. Bird diversity hotspots were not in the strictly protected core areas but in experimental areas near human settlements. This pattern is driven by contrasting responses within the bird community: higher productivity primarily supports abundant core species, whereas proximity to human settlements strongly attracts occasional species. The presence of human settlements could augment vegetation complexity and resource availability, potentially driving higher levels of species coexistence. In contrast, in the study, birds exhibit a strong avoidance of edge areas in protected areas, as these zones often signify intense human disturbance from the surrounding landscape. We conclude that static zoning has limitations in recovering ecosystems. Effective management must balance the enhancement of habitat heterogeneity to support broad community richness with the preservation of core areas, which serve as irreplaceable refugia for disturbance-sensitive species despite not being richness hotspots.

Maize yield is critically endangered by diseases throughout its growth cycle, posing significant risks to food security. The spatial and temporal dynamics of maize yield loss and the rate of yield loss attributable to these threats on a regional scale have been challenging to ascertain due to scarce continuous observation data. This study compiled county-level data on maize yield and yield loss across China's six primary cropping regions over twenty years from 1999 to 2018. These include the Spring-sown area of Northern China (1-NC), the Summer-sown Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (2-HHP), the Southwest Mountain (3-SM), the Southern Hilly (4-SH), the Northwest Irrigated (5-NI), and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Maize Regions (6-QTP). We identified 15 major diseases affecting these regions. The annual average yield loss due to maize diseases in the regions 1-NC, 2-HHP, 3-SM, 4-SH, 5-NI, and 6-QTP were 0.40, 0.58, 0.12, 0.05, 0.04 and <0.01 million tons, respectively, and the corresponding average yield loss rate (the ratio of yield loss to total yield) in these regions was 0.63, 0.90, 0.65, 0.63, 0.44, and 0.05. The yield loss due to all diseases increased for three regions in 3-SM, 4-SH and 5-NI. The yield loss rate due to diseases significantly increased in region 4-SH and 5NI. Predominantly, maize leaf blight has become the most significant threats. In region 1-NC, maize head smut (D1) and maize leaf blight (D2) were the primary diseases. In region 2-HHP, maize leaf blight (D2), maize rust (D3), maize brown spot (D5), Curvularia leaf spot (D7), and maize virus disease (D14) were the key pathogens. Bivariate trend analysis (joint analysis of yield loss and loss rate trends) indicated that maize head smut (D1) decreased significantly in 1-NC, while in 2-HHP, six diseases showed a significant decrease in both yield loss and loss rate, namely sheath blight (D4), brown spot (D5), root rot (D11), downy mildew (D12) and virus disease (D14). By providing a long-term, national-scale perspective, this study not only supports the development of broad management strategies but also guides the creation of precise, region-specific control protocols to safeguard maize production.

Urban zoos are important but complex artificial ecosystems that integrate wildlife conservation with public education. Their soundscapes, including anthrophony, biophony, and geophony, show significant spatiotemporal dynamics. Persistent fluctuations could contribute to chronic stress in captive animals and human visitors, impairing welfare and conservation outcomes. Existing research focuses on static noise levels, neglecting spatiotemporal dynamics in zoo soundscapes. To address this gap, we deployed passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) with 20 acoustic recorders at Zhengzhou Zoo across seven functional zones between weekdays and weekends during summer in 2024. We analyzed six acoustic indices: Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), Acoustic Diversity Index (ADI), Acoustic Evenness Index (AEI), Bioacoustic Index (BIO), Normalized Difference Soundscape Index (NDSI) and A-weighted sound pressure level (SPL(dBA)). These were combined with non-metric multidimensional scaling, generalized additive models, and kernel principal component analysis. Quantitatively, we found that SPL (dBA) increased by up to 10 dB on weekends compared to weekdays, while ACI rose by approximately 20%. A very strong negative correlation was observed between ADI and AEI, indicating an inverse dynamic between acoustic diversity and evenness. Building on these results, the analysis revealed distinct diel patterns, with biophony dominating during dawn and dusk periods, while anthrophony peaked during day hours. The weekend effect was significantly identified with these elevated SPL (dBA) and ACI, alongside reduced acoustic stability. Significant acoustic divergence was observed among functional zones, with elevated SPL (dBA) and ACI in High-traffic Zone but with reduced BIO in others. The results indicate that biological rhythms, human activities, and environmental structures collectively shape zoo soundscapes, and PAM and acoustic indices can provide a robust scientific basis for acoustic-based animal welfare and visitor management in zoos.

The solitary bee Osmia excavata (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) is a key pollinator managed on a large scale. It has been widely used for commercial pollination of fruit trees, vegetables, and other crops with high efficiency in increasing the crop seeding rate, yield, and seed quality in Northern hemisphere. Here, a high-quality chromosome-level genome of O. excavata was generated using PacBio sequencing along with Hi-C technology. The genome size was 207.02 Mb, of which 90.25% of assembled sequences were anchored to 16 chromosomes with a contig N50 of 9,485 kb. Approximately 186.83 Mb, accounting for 27.93% of the genome, was identified as repeat sequences.The genome comprises 12,259 protein-coding genes, 96.24% of which were functionally annotated. Comparative genomics analysis suggested that the common ancestor of O. excavata and Osmia bicornis (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) lived 8.54 million years ago. Furthermore, cytochrome P450 family might be involved in the responses of O. excavatato low-temperature stress.Taken together, the chromosome- level genome assembly of O. excavata provides in-depth knowledge and will be a helpful resource for the pollination biology research.

Wind power generation is expanding rapidly as a sustainable energy development solution to mitigate climate change. However, a significant knowledge gap remains regarding the impacts of wind farm (WF) development on wildlife, particularly how different species respond to the disturbance from WFs. To address this, we used camera-trapping surveys and fecal-DNA metabarcoding data collected from both WF and non-WF areas. We aimed to investigate the multi-dimensional effects of WF disturbances on the competition and coexistence between two key mesocarnivores, red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and Pallas's cats (Otocolobus manul) in the Hexi Corridor, Northwest China. Given their distinct ecological characteristics and responses to human disturbances, we hypothesized that WF disturbances would differentially affect both species across spatial, temporal and diet niche dimensions. As expected, WF disturbances diminished prey availability and increased trophic niche overlap. Temporal niches playing a crucial role in facilitating coexistence through Pallas's cats shifting their daily activity patterns to reduce overlap with human activity. Despite significant differences in habitat preferences, spatial niche overlap between the two species remained similar across WF and non-WF areas, likely due to prey availability and livestock distribution. Our results highlight the complex interplay of spatial, temporal, and trophic niche dimensions in mitigating competition and promoting coexistence among sympatric carnivore species. Our findings provide guidance for balancing renewable energy goals with biodiversity conservation, emphasizing the importance of habitat preservation, prey management, and WF placement strategies during WF development.

The responses of nonhuman primates towards conspecific deaths in the wild, and the activities of carnivores scavenging the corpses, are different but interconnected thanatological and ecological aspects of wildlife mortality. We report the first thanatological events observed in a wild, multilevel group of Myanmar or black snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus strykeri [R. strykeri]) and mesocarnivores scavenging on a monkey carcass in the Pianma region, near the China-Myanmar border. We detected two freshly deceased carcasses during field surveys. The group members visited the location of their recently deceased conspecific twice and variously looked down at the carcass, emitted alarm calls and unusual contact calls, hugged social partners and prevented approaches by individuals from other social units. These behaviors suggest strong bonds and emotional reactions to the death of a companion in R. strykeri. Infrared camera trapping revealed the Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica) as the principal scavenger on the carcass, followed by the yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula). Siberian weasels showed greater activity levels and time spent feeding on the R. strykeri carcass when it was fresh, while remaining vigilant for potential competitors and predators. After the carcass was largely consumed and decayed, both frequency and duration of feeding and vigilance behaviors decreased.

The burrow microhabitats created by burrowing mammals, as a hotspot for biodiversity distribution in ecosystems, provide multiple critical resources for many other sympatric species. However, the cascading effects of burrow resources on sympatric animal community assemblages and interspecific interactions are largely unknown. During 2020-2023, we monitored 184 Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) burrows using camera traps to reveal the burrow utilization patterns of commensal species. We totally recorded up to 57 species, with 19 mammal species, 32 bird species, and 1 reptile species recorded in the burrows revisited by Chinese pangolin, with 19 mammal species and 25 bird species in the non-revisited burrows. Among them, most bird species as peripheral species primarily utilize soil mounds while most mammal species as burrow-used species utilize burrow tunnels. The structure of animal communities in the burrows revisited by Chinese pangolins is more complex than that in the burrows not revisited. Furthermore, the positive correlation between community species in pangolin-revisited burrows is also stronger. Our results demonstrate that the presence and repeated visitation by Chinese pangolins could enhance positive interactions (i.e., the emergence of one species promotes the emergence of another) among species that utilize the burrow resources (particularly, burrow-used species). Our study provides the first evidence that the ecological role of the Chinese pangolin and its associated burrow microhabitats in promoting the coexistence of burrowing commensals and the restoration of Chinese pangolin populations may potentially contribute to the restoration of local biodiversity and ecological processes.

Maize production faces persistent threats from maize diseases and pests (MDPs) throughout its growth cycle, posing substantial risks to food security. However, understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of MDPs occurrences on a regional scale has remained elusive due to a lack of continuous observation data. This study curated a comprehensive dataset spanning two decades, from 1999 to 2018, across six key maize planting regions in China [Spring sown area in Northern China (1-NC), Summer sown region in Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (2-HHP), Southwest Mountain Maize Region (3-SM), Southern Hilly Maize Region (4-SH), Northwest Irrigated Maize Region (5-NI), and Maize Region in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (6-QTP)]. The average extent of MDP occurrence in 1-NC and 2-HHP exceeded that in other regions over the two-decade period. Furthermore, the occurrence of MDPs exhibited a substantial increase in 1-NC, 2-HHP, 3-SM, 4-SH, and 5-NI over the same period. Meanwhile, the average occurrence intensity of MDPs in 2-HHP surpassed that in other regions. Notably, maize leaf blight and the Asian maize borer emerged as predominant diseases and pests in 1-NC, 2-HHP, 3-SM, 4-SH, and 5-NI. A bivariate trend analyses highlighted a notable increase in the species count for both the extent and intensity of MDP occurrences, including double-spotted leaf beetle in 1-NC, and cotton bollworm in 2-HHP. This extensive, long-term analysis offers a foundation for devising comprehensive strategies for MDP control on a national scale, enabling the formulation of tailored forecasting and control measures across six planting regions.

The coexistence of sympatric species with similar ecological niches has been a central issue in ecology. Clarifying the daily activity patterns of sympatric wild ungulates can help understand their temporal niche differentiation and the mechanisms of coexistence, providing information for their conservation. The Baotianman National Nature Reserve in northern China is rich in wild ungulates, but little is known about the daily activity patterns of wild ungulates in the area, making it difficult to develop effective conservation strategies. We studied five representative wild ungulates (i.e. forest musk deer, Chinese goral, Reeve’s muntjac, Siberian roe deer, and wild boar) of the region using camera-trapping data, focusing on the seasonal daily activity patterns and effects of seasonal grazing of domestic sheep, to reveal their coexistence based on temporal ecological niche differentiation. Comparative analyses of the seasonal daily activity showed that forest musk deer exhibited a single-peak activity in the warm season. Other ungulates exhibited multipeak activity. All five ungulates differed significantly in daily activity patterns. Notably, wild boar and Reeve’s muntjac showed high overlap coefficients between the cold and warm seasons. In both cold and warm seasons, the five wild ungulates and domestic sheep displayed low overlap in their daily activity rhythms potentially indicating temporal ecological niche differentiation. The results suggest that temporal isolation might be a strategy for wild ungulates to avoid domestic sheep and reduce interspecific competition, and that temporal ecological niche differentiation potentially promoted the coexistence among the studied sympatric ungulates. This understanding may provide new insights for the development of targeted conservation strategies.

Spatiotemporal interactions between predators and prey are central to maintaining sustainable functioning ecosystems and community stability. For wild ungulates and their predators, livestock grazing is an important anthropogenic disturbance causing population declines and modifying their interactions over time and space. However, it is poorly understood how fine-scale grazing affects the spatiotemporal responses of predators, prey, and their interactions. Two opposing hypotheses describe a dichotomy of possible effects. The human shield hypothesis states that people can protect prey because predators avoid areas with high human-induced mortality risk, whereas in the human competitor hypothesis, humans compete for prey and negatively impact predators through reduced prey availability. We used camera-trapping data from the Gansu Qilianshan National Nature Reserve in Northwest China to measure occupancy, daily activity patterns, and spatiotemporal interactions between snow leopards (Panthera uncia), the dominant predator, and their ungulate prey in areas with contrasting grazing intensities. The results of grazing were consistent with both the human-shield and human-competitor hypotheses, affecting spatiotemporal patterns and interactions of predators and prey. For the primary prey species, blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), their spatial and temporal patterns were affected by grazing, which led to a reduction in interaction frequencies with snow leopards. For secondary prey, grazing led to reduced interaction frequencies with snow leopards for white-lipped deer (Przewalskium albirostris) and red deer (Cervus yarkandensis), but increased frequencies for alpine musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster). Our results indicate how both competition among livestock and prey and predator or prey avoidance of grazed areas can impact populations and predator-prey interactions. Our findings are relevant to grazing management and snow leopard conservation.

Mountain ecosystems harbor evolutionarily unique and exceptionally rich biodiversity, particularly in insects. In this study, we characterized the diversity, community stability, and assembly mechanisms of butterflies on a subtropical mountain in the Chebaling National Nature Reserve, Guangdong Province, China, using grid-based monitoring across the entire region for two years. The results showed that species richness, abundance, and Faith’s phylogenetic diversity decreased with increasing elevation; taxonomic diversity played a considerable role in mediating the effects of environmental changes on stability. Moreover, our results showed that stochastic processes are dominant in governing the assembly of butterfly communities across all elevational gradients, with habitats at an elevation of 416–580 m subjected to the strongest stochastic processes, whereas heterogeneous selection processes displayed stronger effects on the assembly of butterfly communities at 744–908 m, 580–744 m, and 908–1072 m, with abiotic factors inferred as the main driving forces. In addition, significant differences were detected between the barcode tree and the placement tree for the calculated β-NTI values at 416–580 m. Overall, this study provides new insights into the effects of environmental change on the stability and assembly of butterflies in Chebaling, which will be beneficial for biodiversity conservation and policy development.

多样化的森林群落为植物生长提供了不同的微生境.然而,物种在不同类型森林群落中是呈随机分布还是生态专化仍有待阐明.基于不同优势物种群落在太行山猕猴国家自然保护区建立了 4个1 hm2(100 m×100 m)森林动态监测样地,采用Kruskal-Wallis方法、Betadisper检验分析不同群落间的物种组成和结构差异,利用相关网络和指示种分析探索物种-群落间的关系.结果表明,不同群落间木本植物的多度、丰富度和物种组成存在显著差异;共有5种物种同时出现在四个群落中,有43.82％(39/89)的物种分布在两个或两个以上的群落中;网络分析结果显示,物种与群落之间的连接指数为41.29％,专化指数为60.89％;指示种分析显示不同植物群落间指示物种不同.了解了太行山猕猴国家自然保护区不同群落的物种组成和群落结构特征.研究结果同时表明,木本植物在不同群落中的分布具有较高的专化特征.希望本研究能为该区域木本植物多样性维持机制的理解和物种保护提供一定参考.

Habitat use and the temporal activities of wildlife can be largely modified by livestock encroachment. Therefore, identifying the potential impacts of livestock on the predator-prey interactions could provide essential information for wildlife conservation and management. From May to October 2017, we used camera trapping technology to investigate fine-scale spatiotemporal interactions in a predator-prey system with the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) as a common mesopredator, and its prey with contrasting activity patterns (i.e., nocturnal rats and diurnal squirrels) in a livestock-dominated nature reserve in Northern China. We found that the prey species showed different habitat preferences with the leopard cats. The nocturnal rats had strong positive effects on the site-use of the leopard cats, while the influence of livestock on the diurnal squirrels' site-use changed from strong positive effects to weak effects as the livestock disturbance increased. The temporal overlap between the leopard cats and the nocturnal rats was almost four times that of the leopard cats and the diurnal squirrels, regardless of the livestock disturbance. Our study demonstrated that the fine-scale spatiotemporal use patterns of the leopard cats were consistent and highly correlated with the nocturnal rats under livestock disturbance. We suggest that appropriate restrictions on livestock disturbance should be implemented by reserve managers to reduce the threat to wildlife and achieve multi-species coexistence.

为了解河南南太行山区的蝴蝶的群落组成和分布特点,本研究于2020-2021 年对该地区不同生境的蝴蝶群落进行了系统调查和多样性分析.结果共记录到蝴蝶2 688 头,隶属于5 科55 属79 种.蛱蝶科的种类数(44 种)和个体数(1 329 头)均为最多,是保护区的优势类群.玉斑凤蝶Papilio helenus是该地区首次记录的新种.不同生境间物种数和Margalef丰富度指数有明显差异(P<0.05),天然林中蝴蝶的物种数、个体数、Shannon多样性指数、Margalef丰富度指数和Pielou均匀度指数均最高.不同生境间蝶类的相似性有所差异,天然林和次生林的Jaccard相似性系数最大,为0.6849,天然林和农田的Jaccard相似性系数最低,为 0.3971.区系组成主要以广布种(59.49%)为主,古北种(30.38%)次之.蝴蝶资源的多样性和丰富性受不同生境的植被类型和人为干扰程度的影响.

Colonization and extinction at local and regional scales, and gains and losses of patches are important processes in the spatiotemporal dynamics of metacommunities. However, analytical challenges remain in quantifying such spatiotemporal dynamics when species extinction-colonization and patch gain and loss processes act simultaneously. Recent advances in network analysis show great potential in disentangling the roles of colonization, extinction, and patch dynamics in metacommunities. Here, we developed a species-patch network approach to quantify metacommunity dynamics including (i) temporal changes in network structure, and (ii) temporal beta diversity of species-patch links and its components that reflect species extinction-colonization and patch gain and loss. Application of the methods to simulated datasets demonstrated that the approach was informative about metacommunity assembly processes. Based on three empirical datasets, our species-patch network approach provided additional information about metacommunity dynamics through distinguishing the effects of species colonization and extinction at different scales from patch gains and losses and how specific environmental factors related to species-patch network structure. In conclusion, our species-patch network framework provides effective methods for monitoring and revealing long-term metacommunity dynamics by quantifying gains and losses of both species and patches under local and global environmental change.

Background: Contemporary bioacoustics is an interdisciplinary science by combining biology and ecology with acoustics.Through the mutual penetration and integration of technological innovation and many disciplinary fields from natural and social science, it has gradually formed the characteristics of transdisciplinary fields, such as strong compatibility, high technological dependence, and wide application scenarios.Though bioacoustics has expanded into many interdisciplinary fields and application scenarios, a comprehensive understanding of bioacoustics as a discipline in scientific communities at home and abroad are still lacking.Therefore, it is necessary to systematically evaluate the development status, main research issues and frontier topics of contemporary bioacoustics.Scope of bioacoustics: Contemporary bioacoustics is a new interdisciplinary science that studies the relationship between sounds of organisms and their ecological environment.With the technological innovation and application of interdisciplinary fields such as digital recording, electronics and microelectronics, artificial intelligence and informationscience, the research depth and breadth of contemporary bioacoustics are continually expanding, and it has gradually formed a diversified frontier issues with biology, ecology and other disciplines.Currently, bioacoustics is mainly guided by theories and methods from basic disciplines of biology and ecology.The research focus is to reveal the interaction and scientific theories of various sounds among organisms, and among organisms, human beings and the environment in the natural and man-made environment, so as to provide theoretical basis and solutions for human beings to recognize, protect and utilize bioacoustic resources.Aims: By reviewing relevant literature at home and abroad, combined with our practice and thinking, this paper focuses on the interdisciplinary properties and key topics of contemporary bioacoustics, and introduces frontier topics and development trends in animal bioacoustics, ecological acoustics, underwater bioacoustics, environmental bioacoustics, conservation bioacoustics, computational bioacoustics, and bioacoustic monitoring and analysis.The status and development opportunities of bioacoustics research in China are also evaluated and analyzed, and the future discipline construction is prospected.Conclusions: Bioacoustic research is conducive to the fully understanding and scientific use of bioacoustic resources and related scientific theories.Its achievements can be used as scientific guidance and decision-making basis for life health and biosafety, the conservation and utilization of bioacoustic resources and the protection of ecological environment.In sum, interdisciplinary development of bioacoustics can provide high-quality services for the progress of ecological civilization and the construction of a beautiful and healthy China.

Aims:In order to better guide the functional zoning of nature reserves,it is necessary to conduct scientific investigation and assessment of basic biodiversity data from each nature reserve and its surrounding areas.Solitary wasps are important natural predators of agricultural and forestry pests and are also important environmental biological indicators.In this study,we aimed to assess the relationship between spatial distribution of species diversity on solitary wasps(Vespidae)and functional zoning in the Chebaling National Nature Reserve,Guangdong Province. Methods:From 2018 to 2020,we investigated the diversity and distribution of Vespidae wasps and their driving factors in a typical subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in Nanling using artificial trap-nests and km-grid protocols(a total of 100 survey grids with a grid size of 1 km x 1 km)across the whole region and its surrounding areas in the Chebaling National Nature Reserve. Results:In this study,a total of 4,156 wasp trap-nests and 9,973 brood cells were obtained,and 9 wasp species were identified,distributed in 89 grids,and the distribution map of their species richness and abundance was drawn.The results indicated that elevation,the distance to the nearest settlement,and enhanced vegetation index(EVI)may act as the key environmental factors affecting species richness,abundance,and distribution of the wasp community.Species richness,the nest number,and brood cells of Vespidae wasps decreased significantly with increasing elevation,and species richness and abundance were much higher when the sites were closer to the settlement.However,the α diversity index of the wasp community demonstrated a pattern with an initial increase and then decrease with EVI.The overall 0 diversity,species turnover,and the nestedness of the wasp community was 0.21,0.05,and 0.16,respectively,which indicated that the nestedness was the main distribution pattern of the wasp community in the nature reserve.Distance redundancy analysis demonstrated that species turnover was significantly influenced by elevation,whereas the nestedness was not affected by any environmental factor involved in this paper.The abundance of nests or brood cells outside the nature reserve were significantly higher than those in the other three functional zones,while all α diversity indices(species richness,Shannon diversity,Simpson diversity,and Pielou evenness)indicated no significant differences amongst the four functional zones.This suggested that the wasp communities had similar species composition and no obvious distribution boundary across all the functional zones in this nature reserve. Conclusion:Based on the grid survey in the Chebaling National Nature Reserve,this study mapped the spatial distribution of wasp diversity and then revealed the relationship between the wasp diversity and the functional zoning in the Nanling subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest.Our study provides a scientific basis for the long-term monitoring and conservation management of insect biodiversity in protected areas.