FIGURE 7 Distribution pattern of potential species richness of
25 rare, endangered and/or national protected key higher plant species
in Northwest Yunnan
3.5 Environmental explanations for potential distribution of
species
According to the category of environmental factors, we employed the
package ‘spgwr’ of the software R and constructed six different types of
environmental factor models to explain the potential distribution of
species through the GWR model (Table 4). The research results indicated
that the human activity model had a lower interpretation rate than other
models, which appeared a goodness of fit R 2 and
AIC value of 0.83 and 8,850.15, respectively. However, the goodness of
fit R 2 and AIC value of the water model were
0.88 and 7,703.82, respectively, which gave a higher explanation rate
than other models, indicating that the water factor largely influenced
the potential distribution of species. In addition, the goodness of fitR 2 and AIC value of the comprehensive model
were 0.92 and 6,785.26, respectively, and the difference in the AIC
value
(∆AIC)
with other models was greater than three, demonstrating that the
comprehensive model had a better simulation effect on the potential
distribution of species. The results also revealed that multiple
environmental variables were not mutually exclusive, and the potential
distribution of species was the result of the combined effects of
various environmental factors.
TABLE 4 Fitting effects of different models on the potential
distribution of species