NANJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- In Yaoguan Town of Changzhou City in east China's Jiangsu Province, lichens have been recently spotted on mud and plant surfaces, which has not happened in 30 years or so.

Although largely ignored, lichens, a collective of an alga and a fungus that live together and create a composite species, are sensitive to air pollution and serve as an early warning system for pollution in the environment.

"Lichen is looked upon as the environmental monitor because it is quite sensitive to automobile exhaust, industrial waste gas and acid rain," said Feng Hui, Party secretary of the town.

In addition to lichens, jellyfish and egrets have also appeared in Yaoguan Town in recent years, reflecting the improvement of the local environment and ecology, Feng added.

Rare and endangered species reappeared not only in the lakes, but also in the forests in Jiangsu and its nearby seas.

Among them, sea bass returned to the estuary of the Guan River in Guanyun County in the city of Lianyungang, after the county rectified its chemical enterprises to protect the local water quality.

"At present, the water quality at 12 offshore monitoring sites are up to standard," said Zhu Xingbo, head of Guanyun County.

Butterflies are commonly recognized as valuable environmental indicators for their sensitive responses to subtle environmental and climatic changes. Yang Guodong, a doctor from the Jiangsu provincial academy of environmental science, said they monitored 137 species of butterflies from 2017 to 2019 in Jiangsu, with the number on the rise from previous years.

On the eve of the International Day for Biological Diversity, which fell on Friday, Jiangsu announced that it has discovered 4,588 types of species since it launched a background investigation into biodiversity in 2017.

"We found a total of 165 rare and endangered species during the investigation, most of which are more numerous and more widespread than ever before," said Wang Beixin, a professor from the department of entomology in Nanjing Agricultural University.

"For example, the tiger swallowtail butterfly, originally mainly spotted in Nanjing, has spread gradually to southern cities in Jiangsu such as Changzhou," Wang said.

As a region boasting plentiful natural resources and abundant species, Jiangsu attaches great importance to biodiversity conservation, said Zhu Deming, an official with the provincial ecology and environment department.

The province launched a plan to protect species biodiversity in 2014 and reinforced the protection of some endangered species in the Yangtze River, such as Chinese sturgeons and finless porpoise, in 2019.

According to Zhu, Jiangsu has designated a "red line" for ecological protection in 407 regions and implemented strict space management. In addition, it confirmed 22.49 percent of its land area as ecological protection areas.

"The 31 nature reserves are sheltering nearly 60 percent of species in the province," Zhu said, adding that Jiangsu is establishing a provincial-level data platform on biodiversity, which will be open to the public to attract more people to engage in protecting various species. Enditem

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