1. An estimate of the number of tropical tree species.
- Author
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Slik JW, Arroyo-Rodríguez V, Aiba S, Alvarez-Loayza P, Alves LF, Ashton P, Balvanera P, Bastian ML, Bellingham PJ, van den Berg E, Bernacci L, da Conceição Bispo P, Blanc L, Böhning-Gaese K, Boeckx P, Bongers F, Boyle B, Bradford M, Brearley FQ, Breuer-Ndoundou Hockemba M, Bunyavejchewin S, Calderado Leal Matos D, Castillo-Santiago M, Catharino EL, Chai SL, Chen Y, Colwell RK, Chazdon RL, Clark C, Clark DB, Clark DA, Culmsee H, Damas K, Dattaraja HS, Dauby G, Davidar P, DeWalt SJ, Doucet JL, Duque A, Durigan G, Eichhorn KA, Eisenlohr PV, Eler E, Ewango C, Farwig N, Feeley KJ, Ferreira L, Field R, de Oliveira Filho AT, Fletcher C, Forshed O, Franco G, Fredriksson G, Gillespie T, Gillet JF, Amarnath G, Griffith DM, Grogan J, Gunatilleke N, Harris D, Harrison R, Hector A, Homeier J, Imai N, Itoh A, Jansen PA, Joly CA, de Jong BH, Kartawinata K, Kearsley E, Kelly DL, Kenfack D, Kessler M, Kitayama K, Kooyman R, Larney E, Laumonier Y, Laurance S, Laurance WF, Lawes MJ, Amaral IL, Letcher SG, Lindsell J, Lu X, Mansor A, Marjokorpi A, Martin EH, Meilby H, Melo FP, Metcalfe DJ, Medjibe VP, Metzger JP, Millet J, Mohandass D, Montero JC, de Morisson Valeriano M, Mugerwa B, Nagamasu H, Nilus R, Ochoa-Gaona S, Onrizal, Page N, Parolin P, Parren M, Parthasarathy N, Paudel E, Permana A, Piedade MT, Pitman NC, Poorter L, Poulsen AD, Poulsen J, Powers J, Prasad RC, Puyravaud JP, Razafimahaimodison JC, Reitsma J, Dos Santos JR, Roberto Spironello W, Romero-Saltos H, Rovero F, Rozak AH, Ruokolainen K, Rutishauser E, Saiter F, Saner P, Santos BA, Santos F, Sarker SK, Satdichanh M, Schmitt CB, Schöngart J, Schulze M, Suganuma MS, Sheil D, da Silva Pinheiro E, Sist P, Stevart T, Sukumar R, Sun IF, Sunderland T, Suresh HS, Suzuki E, Tabarelli M, Tang J, Targhetta N, Theilade I, Thomas DW, Tchouto P, Hurtado J, Valencia R, van Valkenburg JL, Van Do T, Vasquez R, Verbeeck H, Adekunle V, Vieira SA, Webb CO, Whitfeld T, Wich SA, Williams J, Wittmann F, Wöll H, Yang X, Adou Yao CY, Yap SL, Yoneda T, Zahawi RA, Zakaria R, Zang R, de Assis RL, Garcia Luize B, and Venticinque EM
- Subjects
- Conservation of Natural Resources, Databases, Factual, Ecosystem, Phylogeography, Rainforest, Species Specificity, Statistics, Nonparametric, Biodiversity, Forests, Trees classification, Tropical Climate
- Abstract
The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher's alpha and an approximate pantropical stem total to estimate the minimum number of tropical forest tree species to fall between ∼ 40,000 and ∼ 53,000, i.e., at the high end of previous estimates. Contrary to common assumption, the Indo-Pacific region was found to be as species-rich as the Neotropics, with both regions having a minimum of ∼ 19,000-25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of ∼ 4,500-6,000 tree species. Very few species are shared among the African, American, and the Indo-Pacific regions. We provide a methodological framework for estimating species richness in trees that may help refine species richness estimates of tree-dependent taxa.
- Published
- 2015
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