2.2 | Distribution maps and analyses
In this study, we produced up-to-date distribution maps of the eight species of the large-seeded pine. This included the following species: the Chinese white pine (P. armandii ), the Korean pine (P. koraiensis ), the Siberian dwarf pine (P. pumila ), the Dabieshan white pine (P. dabieshanensis ), the Hunan white pine (P. fenzeliana ), the Chilgoza pine (P. gerardiana ), the Lacebark pine (P. bungeana ), and the Siberian stone pine (P. sibirica ) (Fig. 1). We also included the recorded seed dispersers, i.e. the chipmunk (Tamias sibiricus ), the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris ), the Eurasian nutcrackers (Nucifraga caryocatactes ), and David’s rock squirrels (Sciurotamias davidianus ). We also excluded the habitats of cities, lakes, rivers, and deserts, which are not suitable for these plants to live based on the known distribution areas. It was assumed that these plants could be distributed in other areas of the region. In addition, apart from the animals specially designated as having a discrete distribution in the literature, it was assumed that animals were present in a certain area. Compared to the habitats of animals, if there was no significant difference in the geographical environment of adjacent areas, we assumed the animal’s distribution in those areas. ArcGIS 10.2 (Esri, USA) was used to analyze and visualize the results based on the 1:3,000,000 scale of the Chinese administrative geography vector map. Adobe Photoshop Pro CC 2018 (Adobe Inc., USA) was used to calculate the proportion of overlapping areas of both pines and animals (Zhong et al., 2015).