Religious uses shape the selection and distribution of Chinese Buddhist tree species

As a widely disseminated world religion, Buddhism's selection of religious species may profoundly impact candidate species distribution. This study sampled 246 Chinese temples covering diverse regions to investigate the selection modes of Buddhist tree species (BTS) and the alien religion's influence on Chinese indigenous biodiversity and spread. In species selection at the national scale, anthropogenic factors were less important for BTS's taxonomic, phylogenetic and religious-use spectrum. Bioclimatic factors, especially the minimum temperature of the coldest month, were the dominant drivers. During the trans-climatic-zone dissemination of Buddhism in China, the growth of original BTS (OBTS) from the India source area was stifled outside tropical and subtropical zones. The climatic constraints demanded the recruitment of substitute BTS (SBTS) from the indigenous flora. The same suite of religious uses was assigned to different BTS through the substitution process. With a weak environmental filter, indigenous species with close phylogenetic relationships and morphological similarity to OBTS were preferentially selected as substitutes. However, under a strong environmental filter, the selection was compelled to favour indigenous species with a distant phylogenetic relationship but similar part-specific organ morphology (leaf or fruit) to OBTS. Ultimately, Buddhism, as an alien religion, influenced indigenous biodiversity mainly by localizing BTS and facilitating their spread and preservation. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.