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Feature Papers in 'Conservation Biology and Biodiversity' (2nd Edition)

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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This collection is the second edition of “Feature Papers in 'Conservation Biology and Biodiversity'”. The anthropogenic destruction of biodiversity has been ongoing for centuries or even millennia in many areas of the Old World, but it has never been more intense than it was in the past century. The development of increasingly energy-intensive human populations, the expansion of cultivated plants and domestic animals, the diffusion of alien and invasive species, and the impacts of technologies are accelerating the transformative processes of natural ecosystems at an unprecedented and uncontrollable rate. It is very important to make the theoretical and practical tools of conservation sciences available for the protection of the biosphere so that the biological evolution of populations can continue, generating new adaptations and contrasting extinctions.

Research on conservation biology is at the height of its activity, boosted by unprecedented possibilities of collecting and modelling big data in the ecology of ecosystems and populations, population genomics, and microevolution as well as co-adaptation processes between components of the biosphere and the technosphere. We can now manage international institutions and regulatory instruments, as well as potential financial resources, though they are often inadequate for the implementation of conservation projects in the "Real World" of biodiversity. Therefore, we invite anyone interested to contribute their papers to the realization of this Special Issue on 'Conservation Biology and Biodiversity'.

Prof. Dr. Ettore Randi
Guest Editor

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Keywords

population genomics and diversity
heterozygosity
inbreeding
hybridization
adaptive introgression
natural selection
speciation
bottleneck and population fragmentation
genetic drift
gene flow
extinction risk
evolvability
paleogenomics
phylogeography
conservation units
ecotypes
phylogenetics and systematics
eDNA
non-invasive genetic sampling
environmental monitoring

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16 pages, 2179 KB

Open AccessArticle

Distribution and Ecological Traits of Cotoneaster integerrimus in South Korea

by Gyeong-Yeon Lee, Deokki Kim, Seung-Eun Lee and Tae-Bok Ryu

Biology 2025, 14(12), 1737; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology14121737 - 4 Dec 2025

Viewed by 294

Abstract

Although the rare plant Cotoneaster integerrimus is distributed across Eurasia, ecological information on its isolated populations at the easternmost range limit in Korea has been entirely lacking. This study was conducted to (1) characterize the environmental characteristics of the habitat of Korean C. integerrimus populations and (2) predict potential habitats via a simple species distribution model (SDM) based on ridge logistic regression and presence–background data, providing a foundation for effective conservation strategies. To this end, we analyzed habitat type, topography, and light conditions through field surveys and combined these data with an SDM fitted to six known occurrences on limestone ridges. Results revealed a clear ecological divergence; the Korean population is biased toward partial shade and north-facing slopes within the forest understory, in contrast to European populations inhabiting open, rocky sites. This distribution pattern is interpreted as a local adaptive strategy that reduces exposure to hot and humid summer conditions. Furthermore, a unique morphological trait not reported in European populations was identified: dense persistent hairs that remain until seed maturity. The SDM analysis showed moderate discrimination (training AUC = 0.784) and indicated that high elevation and ridge topography (Topographical Position Index, TPI) acted as key habitat factors, whereas annual mean temperature was the strongest limiting factor. Mapping the upper decile (top 10%) of predicted suitability within the limestone belt highlighted a small, spatially restricted set of high-elevation ridges as candidate microrefugia and survey priorities. This study suggests that the Korean C. integerrimus population may have undergone local adaptation due to isolation. Furthermore, this population is considered both a Geographical Peripheral Population (GPP) and a glacial relict, and is assessed to be vulnerable to climate change. Given that the SDM is based on only six occurrences and shows variable performance among spatial folds, all spatial predictions and variable effects should be regarded as exploratory and spatially conservative rather than as definitive habitat projections. These findings, therefore, support the urgent need to establish in situ and ex situ conservation strategies that preserve this geographically peripheral population as an irreplaceable component of the species’ genetic diversity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in 'Conservation Biology and Biodiversity' (2nd Edition))

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