Response of distribution patterns of two closely related species in Taxus genus to climate change since last inter-glacial

Climate change affects species' spatio-temporal distribution deeply. However, how climate affects the spatio-temporal distribution pattern of related species on the large scale remains largely unclear. Here, we selected two closely related species in the Taxus genus, Taxus chinensis and Taxus mairei, to explore their distribution pattern. Four environmental variables were employed to simulate the distribution patterns using the optimized Maxent model. The results showed that the highly suitable area of T. chinensis and T. mairei in the current period was 1.616 × 105 km2 and 3.093 × 105 km2, respectively. The distribution area of T. chinensis was smaller than that of T. mairei in different periods. Comparison of different periods shows that the distribution area of the two species was almost in stasis from LIG to the future periods. Temperature and precipitation were the main climate factors that determined the potential distribution of the two species. The centroids of T. chinensis and ..., ,