中国哺乳动物形态、生活史和生态学特征数据集

物种特征是生物对生存环境适应和响应的表现, 反映了物种的生态位、适合度和生态功能。特征数据库的建立和共享是研究生物多样性维持与丧失、物种进化与适应、生态过程与生态系统功能、物种对气候变化和人类干扰响应、种内与种间关系等的基础。中国是世界哺乳动物物种数最多的国家之一, 然而目前中国还没有包含哺乳动物形态、生活史、生态学和地理分布等物种特征的数据库。我们系统查阅了文献和各种数据资料, 共收集整理出中国有分布记录的754种哺乳动物(包括近些年野外绝灭种、分布存疑种)的体重、脑容量、体长、尾长、前臂长(翼手目)、后足长、耳长、性成熟时间、妊娠期、窝崽数、年窝数、世代长度、食性、活动模式、是否特有种、濒危等级、海拔范围、栖息地类型、栖息地宽度、动物地理界、生物群系、分布型、动物地理区划和分布省份或水域等24个生态特征数据。在这些特征中, 除了分布省份或水域及是否特有种外, 其余特征数据均存在不同程度的缺失, 数据的完整度为30%?100%。本数据库收录的哺乳动物种数为目前中国哺乳动物种数的上限, 为中国哺乳动物研究提供了基础数据, 推进中国哺乳动物多样性信息共享和深度挖掘。

A dataset on the morphological,life-history and ecological traits of the mammals in China

Species traits reflect the species’ ecological function and fitness. The trait data play a vital role in studying biodiversity maintenance and loss, species evolution and adaptation, ecological interactions and processes, ecosystem functions, and species responses to both climate change and human pressures. China is one of the countries with the richest mammal diversity in the world, so far, there is no comprehensive resource of morphological, life history, ecological and geographical distribution data of the mammals in China. We compiled 24 traits data of 754 Chinese mammals (including recently regional extinct species and those species with disputed taxonomy and distribution) between 2008 and 2021 through systematic literature review and dataset integration, referred to mammalian monographs and field guides. The main sources used in completing the dataset were: the life history traits were retrieved from A Field Guide to the Mammals of China (Pan et al, 2007), A Guide to the Mammals of China (Smith & Xie, 2009), and trait database (COMBINE: COalesced Mammal dataBase of INtrinsic and Extrinsic traits, Soria et al, 2021), and the zoogeographical regionalization and distribution type were searched in China Animal Geography (Zhang, 2011), and species distribution in provinces and threatened category were cited from China’s Red List of Biodiversity: Vertebrates, Volume I, Mammals (Jiang et al, 2021) and Handbook of Mammals of China (Liu et al, 2019, 2020). In addition, Handbook of the Mammals of the World (Wilson & Mittermeier, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019; Wilson et al, 2016, 2017), Mammal Diversity Database (American Society of Mammalogists, ASM, 2021) and COMBINE database (Soria et al, 2021) were taken as supplementary data source. Further, peer-reviewed scientific publications from 1990 to 2021 were searched in CNKI, Google Scholar to supplementary traits data. Our dataset included body weight, brain size, head body length, tail length, forearm length (Chiroptera), hind foot length, ear length, sexual maturity time, gestation length, litter size, litters per year, generation length, diet, activity pattern, habitat type, habitat breadth, realm, biome, endemic species, elevational range, distribution type, zoogeographical regionalization, geographical distribution. Among these twenty-four traits, the data integrity ranged from 30% to 100%. The traits data were incomplete to some extent due to lack of research while the information about endemic species, geographical distribution in province of China’s mammals are completed. The dataset is the latest and most complete database on the traits of China’s mammals, which lays the foundation for future researches in mammalogy and biodiversity study and promote information sharing and in-depth mining of mammal diversity in China.