The number of tree species on Earth

Titelangaben

Gatti, Roberto Cazzolla ; Reich, Peter B. ; Gamarra, Javier G. P. ; Crowther, Tom ; Hui, Cang ; Morera, Albert ; Bastin, Jean-Francois ; de-Miguel, Sergio ; Nabuurs, Gert-Jan ; Svenning, Jens-Christian ; Serra-Diaz, Josep M. ; Merow, Cory ; Enquist, Brian ; Kamenetsky, Maria ; Lee, Junho ; Zhu, Jun ; Fang, Jinyun ; Jacobs, Douglass F. ; Pijanowski, Bryan ; Banerjee, Arindam ; Giaquinto, Robert A. ; Alberti, Giorgio ; Almeyda Zambrano, Angelica Maria ; Alvarez-Davila, Esteban ; Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro ; Avitabile, Valerio ; Aymard, Gerardo A. ; Balazy, Radomir ; Baraloto, Chris ; Barroso, Jorcely G. ; Bastian, Meredith L. ; Birnbaum, Philippe ; Bitariho, Robert ; Bogaert, Jan ; Bongers, Frans ; Bouriaud, Olivier ; Brancalion, Pedro H. S. ; Brearley, Francis Q. ; Broadbent, Eben North ; Bussotti, Filippo ; Castro da Silva, Wendeson ; César, Ricardo Gomes ; Češljar, Goran ; Chama Moscoso, Víctor ; Chen, Han Y. H. ; Cienciala, Emil ; Clark, Connie J. ; Coomes, David A. ; Dayanandan, Selvadurai ; Decuyper, Mathieu ; Dee, Laura E. ; Del Aguila Pasquel, Jhon ; Derroire, Géraldine ; Djuikouo, Marie Noel Kamdem ; Do, Tran Van ; Dolezal, Jiri ; Đorđević, Ilija Đ. ; Engel, Julien ; Fayle, Tom M. ; Feldpausch, Ted R. ; Fridman, Jonas K. ; Harris, David J. ; Hemp, Andreas ; Hengeveld, Geerten ; Herault, Bruno ; Herold, Martin ; Ibanez, Thomas ; Jagodzinski, Andrzej M. ; Jaroszewicz, Bogdan ; Jeffery, Kathryn J. ; Johannsen, Vivian Kvist ; Jucker, Tommaso ; Kangur, Ahto ; Karminov, Victor N. ; Kartawinata, Kuswata ; Kennard, Deborah K. ; Kepfer-Rojas, Sebastian ; Keppel, Gunnar ; Khan, Mohammed Latif ; Khare, Pramod Kumar ; Kileen, Timothy J. ; Kim, Hyun Seok ; Korjus, Henn ; Kumar, Amit ; Kumar, Ashwani ; Laarmann, Diana ; Labrière, Nicolas ; Lang, Mait ; Lewis, Simon L. ; Lukina, Natalia ; Maitner, Brian S. ; Malhi, Yadvinder ; Marshall, Andrew R. ; Martynenko, Olga V. ; Mendoza, Abel L. Monteagudo ; Ontikov, Petr V. ; Ortiz-Malavasi, Edgar ; Camacho, Nadir C. Pallqui ; Paquette, Alain ; Park, Minjee ; Parthasarathy, Narayanaswamy ; Peri, Pablo Luis ; Petronelli, Pascal ; Pfautsch, Sebastian ; Phillips, Oliver L. ; Picard, Nicolas ; Piotto, Daniel ; Poorter, Lourens ; Poulsen, John R. ; Pretzsch, Hans ; Ramírez-Angulo, Hirma ; Restrepo Correa, Zorayda ; Rodeghiero, Mirco ; Rojas Gonzáles, Rocío Del Pilar ; Rolim, Samir G. ; Rovero, Francesco ; Rutishauser, Ervan ; Saikia, Purabi ; Salas-Eljatib, Christian ; Schepaschenko, Dmitry ; Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael ; Šebeň, Vladimír ; Silveira, Marcos ; Slik, Ferry ; Sonké, Bonaventure ; Souza, Alexandre F. ; Stereńczak, Krzysztof Jan ; Svoboda, Miroslav ; Taedoumg, Hermann ; Tchebakova, Nadja ; Terborgh, John ; Tikhonova, Elena ; Torres-Lezama, Armando ; van der Plas, Fons ; Vásquez, Rodolfo ; Viana, Helder ; Vibrans, Alexander C. ; Vilanova, Emilio ; Vos, Vincent A. ; Wang, Hua-Feng ; Westerlund, Bertil ; White, Lee J. T. ; Wiser, Susan K. ; Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, Tomasz ; Zemagho, Lise ; Zhu, Zhi-Xin ; Zo-Bi, Irié C. ; Liang, Jingjing:
The number of tree species on Earth.
In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Bd. 119 (2022) Heft 6 . - e2115329119.
ISSN 1091-6490
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115329119

Volltext

Link zum Volltext (externe URL):

Angaben zu Projekten

Abstract

Tree diversity is fundamental for forest ecosystem stability and services. However, because of limited available data, estimates of tree diversity at large geographic domains still rely heavily on published lists of species descriptions that are geographically uneven in coverage. These limitations have precluded efforts to generate a global perspective. Here, based on a ground-sourced global database, we estimate the number of tree species at biome, continental, and global scales. We estimated a global tree richness (≈73,300) that is ≈14% higher than numbers known today, with most undiscovered species being rare, continentally endemic, and tropical or subtropical. These results highlight the vulnerability of global tree species diversity to anthropogenic changes. One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness.