Another new species has appeared! Why do rare animals and plants appear in Danxia Mountain?

Recently, the investigation team discovered a spider named "Danxia Big Spotted Spider" in Danxia Mountain National Park in Guangdong. This is the second new species of spider discovered in the area after the Danxia Korat spider, and it is also the 42nd new species discovered in Danxia Mountain in recent years. According to statistics, Danxia Mountain has recorded more than 4,000 species of wild animals, plants and fungi, and is known as a "treasure house of species" in the industry.

Danxia Giant Spotted Spider (Photo source: Danxia Mountain Management Committee)

The rich species in Danxia Mountain are closely related to geological conditions, climate, nature protection and other factors. Among them, the geological conditions dominated by Danxia landform are the most basic and most critical factors.

Danxia landform attracts much attention

Danxia Mountain is located in the northern part of Guangdong Province, covering an area of ​​nearly 300 square kilometers. It is a national scenic spot and a world-class geological park.

Danxia Mountain is famous for its Danxia landform, which is the most typical, richest and most complete Danxia landform scenic area. There are more than 680 peaks composed of red gravel on the mountain. The top and foot of each peak are covered with green plants, and the cliffs are steep and red.

Danxia landform is one of the seven major landforms. It refers to the general term for special terrains such as mountains, peaks, walls, and pillars composed of huge sandstone or conglomerate. It developed from the Jurassic to the Tertiary and has a history of about hundreds of millions of years.

The most prominent feature of Danxia landform is the red cliffs. The combination of cliffs and walls, and the beautiful mountains and waters complement each other, thus forming a famous scenic mountain. Among the more than 150 national scenic spots in my country, 26 mountains are Danxia landforms. As a representative of Danxia landform, Danxia Mountain is also famous for its beautiful cliffs. The large cliff of Jinmingyan in the north of Changlao Peak looks like red clouds from a distance and is very gorgeous when viewed up close. Literati called it "the color is like red, and the brilliance is like bright clouds", and Danxia Mountain got its name from this.

The Jinshiyan cliff on Danxia Mountain (Photo source: Earth Magazine)

Danxia landform has unique tourism resources due to its complex formation process and long time. Its scenery is often of great ornamental value and has obvious advantages in developing tourism. In addition, as a red rock system formed over hundreds of millions of years, Danxia landform provides the possibility of studying ancient fossils such as dinosaurs and has high scientific research value. The rocks that make it up are relatively soft and can be used as building materials for comprehensive development and utilization, which also has certain economic value.

Danxia landform is one of the great discoveries in world geography in the 20th century. In the 1920s, when the technical officer of the Guangdong-Guangxi Geological Survey Institute (referring to the technical personnel in the Republic of China) conducted a geological survey, he found that there were many red-colored rock layers on the mountains in the northern part of Guangdong Province. When he wrote his paper, he used the poem "Danxia sandwiched between the bright moon and the stars emerged from the clouds" from Cao Pi, the Emperor Wen of Wei in the Three Kingdoms period, and named it "Danxia Layer". More than 10 years later, scientist Chen Guoda publicly used the concept of "Danxia landform". In 1961, the entry "Danxia landform" was officially included in the Geography Volume of the Cihai (Trial Edition). Since then, "Danxia landform" has become a special landform recognized by the academic community. At the beginning of this century, Danxia Mountain in Guangdong, Chishan in Guizhou, and Langshan in Hunan were listed in the World Heritage List (2010) by UNESCO, and Danxia landform and Danxia Mountain have attracted worldwide attention.

Ximei Village and Nine-Nine Ladders to Heaven in Danxia Mountain (Photo source: Earth Magazine)

A treasure trove of species in unique habitats

The unique Danxia landform creates a unique species habitat. Habitat refers to the ecological environment where species or species groups survive. The formation process of Danxia landform is the process of continuous decomposition and change of rock layers. In this process, the mountain becomes smaller, the soil layer becomes thinner, the vegetation on the top of the mountain decreases, and the valley has less air circulation, humidity and temperature rise, thus forming the famous "heat island effect". The heat island effect is the phenomenon that the temperature of an area is higher than that of the surrounding areas. Specifically in Danxia landform, the temperature of the valley is significantly higher than that of the mountain top or cliff area.

The heat island effect gives Danxia Mountain two habitats: one is that from the valley to the top of the mountain, there are various vegetations such as subtropical broad-leaved forests, cliff plants, valley rainforests and cave plants, which have great scientific and ecological value in terms of species conservation and application; the other is that there are vines intertwined in the valleys, and there are many ferns growing (the most representative one is the golden dogwood), and tropical rainforest plant forms such as aerial roots and flowers on old stems appear from time to time.

In addition, due to dramatic geological changes in the Nanling area hundreds of millions of years ago, many extremely small wild animal populations survived. During the evolution process, due to the complex habitat of Danxia Mountain, many magical and unique species were derived and have survived to this day.

The unique and complex habitat provides an extremely favorable environment for the reproduction of plants in the Danxia landform area. Take Danxia Mountain in Guangdong as an example. There are more than 2,200 recorded plants in Danxia Mountain, including one national first-class protected plant (Xianhu Cycas) and 29 second-class protected plants. (List of National Key Protected Wild Plants (2021))

Danxia Mountain is full of ancient trees, exotic flowers and famous plants: in addition to the largest masson pine community in China, there are also regional characteristic plants named after "Danxia Mountain", such as Danxia sycamore, Danxia leafless orchid, Danxia small flowered chicory, Danxia violet, and rare plants such as Chinese water hyacinth, palm tree, and white osmanthus. Among them, Danxia sycamore has been widely concerned since it was discovered by three botanists in 1987. It belongs to the genus sycamore in the Malvaceae family, is a rare and endangered plant in the country and a second-level key protected plant. Most of them are distributed in Danxia Mountain and are known as the plant business card of Guangdong.

Endemic plants of Danxia Mountain (from left to right: Danxia Aphylla, Danxia Chinese parasol tree, Danxia Viola, source: Earth Magazine)

The lush vegetation creates favorable conditions for the growth and reproduction of animals in Danxia Mountain. According to statistics, there are more than 2,000 species of wild animals on record in Danxia Mountain, including 2 first-class national key protected animals and 59 national key protected animals.

The investigation team found 155 species of spiders in 122 genera and 34 families in Danxia Mountain. Among them, the Danxia Korat spider and Danxia big spotted spider mentioned above are new species of spiders discovered in the past two years. The birds on Danxia Mountain are represented by the silver pheasant. The silver pheasant is a national second-level key wild protected animal. The female bird is gray and the male bird is white. It was selected as the provincial bird of Guangdong Province because of its elegant temperament and beautiful appearance. Among the small animals on Danxia Mountain, the most popular is the squirrel. There live red-bellied squirrels, hidden flower squirrels, red-legged long-nosed squirrels, etc., and the red-legged long-nosed squirrel is a mammal unique to Danxia Mountain.

Red-legged long-nosed squirrel (Photo source: Danxia Mountain Management Committee)

Sustainable protection of biodiversity

The mountains are high and the valleys are deep, the soil is excellent, and various animals and plants live freely. The biodiversity research of Danxia Mountain, a "treasure house of species", is also attracting more and more attention from the industry.

As an important indicator of regional ecological environment and ecological civilization, biodiversity is the sum of animals, plants, microorganisms and their corresponding ecological complex environment and related ecological processes. Biodiversity is closely related to human life. Because some species related to it may become extinct after the extinction of a species, biodiversity protection is very important.

Take orchids as an example. There are dozens of orchids in Danxia Mountain. In addition to seasonal orchids such as Chunlan, Xiahui, Jianlan, and Hanlan, there are also famous orchids such as Damolan, Renhuabai, Baosui, Baimo, Dwarf-legged orchid, and Danxia Leafless Orchid. Damolan is an endangered orchid of the highest quality. Currently, only two plants have been found in the world, one in Taiwan's Damo Temple (named after the place of discovery), and the other was discovered in Danxia Mountain in 1987. This also strongly highlights the biodiversity of Danxia Mountain.

Damolan (source see watermark)

The species resources of Danxia Mountain are not only natural wealth, but also an important part of protecting the ecological balance. We must continue to protect and study Danxia Mountain so that it will always maintain its unique charm!

References:

1. "Ecosystem Diversity of Danxia Mountain", by Chen Baoming and Peng Shaolin, Proceedings of the 19th Academic Symposium of the Guangdong Botanical Society (2010)

2. "Research on the Development of Ecological Tourism in Danxia Mountain, Guangdong", author Liu Meiling, Journal of Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, No. 4, 2016

3. "Preliminary Analysis of Rare and Endangered Species in Danxia Landform Areas in Southeast China", by Wang Dongmei, Ren Wentao, etc., Journal of Ecology and Environment, No. 3, 2008

Author: Wei Deyong, member of Shenzhen Writers Association, Guangdong

Editor: Guru