Evaluating and improving the connectivity of China's protected area networks for facilitating species range shifts under climate change

Contemporary climate change is causing spatial redistributions of many species, potentially undermining the effectiveness of existing protected areas (PAs). This raises concerns about whether current PAs are connected enough to capture climate-induced range shifts and how to expand PAs to support this ecological process. Hence, we conducted a national-scale assessment of climate connectivity for the terrestrial PAs across mainland China. We found that most PAs are structurally connected to cool ones through low human impact (LHI) areas along temperature gradients. The connected PA networks could enable species to migrate and avoid an average climate warming of 2.9 °C under moderate emission scenario. Nevertheless, less than half (46.2%) of the PAs have achieved successful climate connectivity. To facilitate climate-induced range shifts, we identified priority areas for conservation based on their importance in supporting connections between PAs. Our study provides spatially explicit assessments of the connectivity of PA networks for range shifts and emphasizes the necessity to consider climate connectivity in the planning of PAs at regional scales.