ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1613723
This article is part of the Research TopicDynamics of Greenhouse Gases in Forest SystemsView all 3 articles
Assessment of Suitability Evaluation for Ficus altissima Blume Ancient Trees in Different Climatic Environments in Guangxi, China
Provisionally accepted
- Anqing Normal University, Anqing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China is home to numerous Ficus altissima Blume (F. altissima) ancient trees over 300 years old, which hold significant cultural, ecological, and scientific research value. However, little is known about their current and future distribution suitability or growth trends. To address this gap, using machine learning and species distribution models, we analyzed their distribution patterns and habitat suitability changes under current and future climate scenarios, incorporating 33 climatic, topographic, and soil-related driving factors. Our findings reveal that the region hosts 514 ancient F. altissima trees aged over 300 years, 114 of which exhibit declining or endangered growth conditions. The spatial distribution of these trees is highly discrete, influenced by topographical constraints and intraspecific competition. Over 45% are found at elevations between 80 and 150 meters. Jackknife analysis identified the mean temperature of the wettest quarter (bio8) as the most critical factor affecting their distribution (77.6% cumulative contribution when combined with temperature seasonality, bio4). Specifically, regions with bio8 < 26°C and bio4 > 625°C are unsuitable for F. altissima (LOV < 0.085). Additionally, tree size varies by habitat due to competition, with ancient trees in flat areas exhibiting larger average crown widths. The accuracy of the Maxent model is superior to models such as BIOCLIM and GLM. Compared to current, under the SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5 climate scenarios, the moderately suitable distribution area expanded by 1.47% and 0.89%, respectively (averaging 5.53% across four time periods), while the highly suitable area decreased by 0.04% and 0.21%. These results provide valuable insights for the conservation and sustainable utilization of ancient F. altissima trees.
Keywords: F. altissima, Ancient trees, species distribution models, Maxent, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 11 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gu, Chen and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hongliang Gu, Anqing Normal University, Anqing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.