Ancient Trail Study Finds Biodiversity and Culture in Antagonistic Coupling Across 98.90% of Corridor

China’s Huizhou-Hangzhou Ancient Trail, a mountainous linear heritage landscape, presents a striking conservation puzzle: nearly the entire corridor shows an antagonistic relationship between biodiversity and cultural diversity, according to a new study that applies biocultural diversity thinking to heritage protection. Regions with antagonistic coupling account for 98.90% of the total study area, while coordinated regions make up only 0.02%.

The research team, led by Yuanliang Dong with Chengcheng Pan, Siyu Pan and Lei Zhang, argues that conservation models guided by a single ecological or cultural goal cannot meet the holistic management needs of linear heritage landscapes, which embody long-term coupling between ecological processes and human cultural practices. To diagnose the problem, the researchers assessed biodiversity and cultural diversity patterns along the trail and quantified their spatial relationships using the coupling coordination degree model.

The near-universal antagonism may be jointly influenced by rigid competition for small-scale spatial resources, the dual effects of traffic corridors, and the cumulative effects of traditional livelihood activities, the authors suggest based on the natural and cultural context of the study area. These are proposed explanatory factors for the observed pattern rather than experimentally tested causes.

To translate diagnosis into planning, the team integrated a biocultural diversity index with the Marxan systematic conservation planning model to identify Biocultural Core Protected Areas (BCCPA) along the trail. The resulting framework proposes an integrated conservation spatial pattern of one core area and two corridors, paired with four differentiated conservation strategies: Conservation-Minimal Intervention, Conservation-Appropriate Revitalization, Restoration-Minimal Intervention, and Restoration-Appropriate Revitalization.

The authors present the approach as a transferable methodological pathway for integrated conservation planning and as an advance in understanding biocultural interactions in mountainous linear heritage landscapes. Because the study is framed as a case study, the antagonistic pattern and the proposed explanatory mechanisms describe the Huizhou-Hangzhou Ancient Trail specifically, and the spatial planning framework is offered as a model for similar linear heritage landscapes rather than a demonstrated outcome.

Subject of Research: Integrated biocultural conservation planning for the Huizhou-Hangzhou Ancient Trail in China

Article Title: Integrated conservation of linear heritage landscapes from a biocultural diversity perspective: A case study of the Huizhou-Hangzhou Ancient Trail, China

Article References: Dong, Y., Pan, C., Pan, S., & Zhang, L. (2026). Integrated conservation of linear heritage landscapes from a biocultural diversity perspective: A case study of the Huizhou-Hangzhou Ancient Trail, China. PLOS One, 21(10), e0360922. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360922

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360922

Keywords: biocultural diversity, linear heritage landscapes, Huizhou-Hangzhou Ancient Trail, coupling coordination degree model, Marxan, systematic conservation planning, cultural diversity, biodiversity, spatial planning, China, Integrated, conservation