An estimate of the number of tropical tree species.
- Authors
-
- Slik, J W Ferry
- Arroyo-Rodríguez, Víctor
- Aiba, Shin-Ichiro
- Alvarez-Loayza, Patricia
- Alves, Luciana F
- Ashton, Peter
- Balvanera, Patricia
- Bastian, Meredith L
- Bellingham, Peter J
- van den Berg, Eduardo
- Bernacci, Luis
- da Conceição Bispo, Polyanna
- Blanc, Lilian
- Böhning-Gaese, Katrin
- Boeckx, Pascal
- Bongers, Frans
- Boyle, Brad
- Bradford, Matt
- Brearley, Francis Q
- Breuer-Ndoundou Hockemba, Mireille
- Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh
- Calderado Leal Matos, Darley
- Castillo-Santiago, Miguel
- Catharino, Eduardo L M
- Chai, Shauna-Lee
- Chen, Yukai
- Colwell, Robert K
- Chazdon, Robin L
- Robin, Chazdon L
- Clark, Connie
- Clark, David B
- Clark, Deborah A
- Culmsee, Heike
- Damas, Kipiro
- Dattaraja, Handanakere S
- Dauby, Gilles
- Davidar, Priya
- DeWalt, Saara J
- Doucet, Jean-Louis
- Duque, Alvaro
- Durigan, Giselda
- Eichhorn, Karl A O
- Eisenlohr, Pedro V
- Eler, Eduardo
- Ewango, Corneille
- Farwig, Nina
- Feeley, Kenneth J
- Ferreira, Leandro
- Field, Richard
- de Oliveira Filho, Ary T
- Fletcher, Christine
- Forshed, Olle
- Franco, Geraldo
- Fredriksson, Gabriella
- Gillespie, Thomas
- Gillet, Jean-François
- Amarnath, Giriraj
- Griffith, Daniel M
- Grogan, James
- Gunatilleke, Nimal
- Harris, David
- Harrison, Rhett
- Hector, Andy
- Homeier, Jürgen
- Imai, Nobuo
- Itoh, Akira
- Jansen, Patrick A
- Joly, Carlos A
- de Jong, Bernardus H J
- Kartawinata, Kuswata
- Kearsley, Elizabeth
- Kelly, Daniel L
- Kenfack, David
- Kessler, Michael
- Kitayama, Kanehiro
- Kooyman, Robert
- Larney, Eileen
- Laumonier, Yves
- Laurance, Susan
- Laurance, William F
- Lawes, Michael J
- Amaral, Ieda Leao do
- Letcher, Susan G
- Lindsell, Jeremy
- Lu, Xinghui
- Mansor, Asyraf
- Marjokorpi, Antti
- Martin, Emanuel H
- Meilby, Henrik
- Melo, Felipe P L
- Metcalfe, Daniel J
- Medjibe, Vincent P
- Metzger, Jean Paul
- Millet, Jerome
- Mohandass, D
- Montero, Juan C
- de Morisson Valeriano, Márcio
- Mugerwa, Badru
- Nagamasu, Hidetoshi
- Nilus, Reuben
- Ochoa-Gaona, Susana
- Onrizal,
- Page, Navendu
- Parolin, Pia
- Parren, Marc
- Parthasarathy, Narayanaswamy
- Paudel, Ekananda
- Permana, Andrea
- Piedade, Maria T F
- Pitman, Nigel C A
- Poorter, Lourens
- Poulsen, Axel D
- Poulsen, John
- Powers, Jennifer
- Prasad, Rama C
- Puyravaud, Jean-Philippe
- Razafimahaimodison, Jean-Claude
- Reitsma, Jan
- Dos Santos, João Roberto
- Roberto Spironello, Wilson
- Romero-Saltos, Hugo
- Rovero, Francesco
- Rozak, Andes Hamuraby
- Ruokolainen, Kalle
- Rutishauser, Ervan
- Saiter, Felipe
- Saner, Philippe
- Santos, Braulio A
- Santos, Fernanda
- Sarker, Swapan K
- Satdichanh, Manichanh
- Schmitt, Christine B
- Schöngart, Jochen
- Schulze, Mark
- Suganuma, Marcio S
- Sheil, Douglas
- da Silva Pinheiro, Eduardo
- Sist, Plinio
- Stevart, Tariq
- Sukumar, Raman
- Sun, I-Fang
- Sunderland, Terry
- Sunderand, Terry
- Suresh, H S
- Suzuki, Eizi
- Tabarelli, Marcelo
- Tang, Jangwei
- Targhetta, Natália
- Theilade, Ida
- Thomas, Duncan W
- Tchouto, Peguy
- Hurtado, Johanna
- Valencia, Renato
- van Valkenburg, Johan L C H
- Van Do, Tran
- Vasquez, Rodolfo
- Verbeeck, Hans
- Adekunle, Victor
- Vieira, Simone A
- Webb, Campbell O
- Whitfeld, Timothy
- Wich, Serge A
- Williams, John
- Wittmann, Florian
- Wöll, Hannsjoerg
- Yang, Xiaobo
- Adou Yao, C Yves
- Yap, Sandra L
- Yoneda, Tsuyoshi
- Zahawi, Rakan A
- Zakaria, Rahmad
- Zang, Runguo
- de Assis, Rafael L
- Garcia Luize, Bruno
- Venticinque, Eduardo M And 155 more
- Type
- Published Article
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publication Date
- Jun 15, 2015
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 24
- Pages
- 7472–7477
- Identifiers
- DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1423147112
- PMID: 26034279
- Source
- Medline
- Keywords
- License
- Unknown
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.
