학술논문

An estimate of the number of tropical tree species
Document Type
article
Author
Slik, JW FerryArroyo-Rodríguez, VíctorAiba, Shin-IchiroAlvarez-Loayza, PatriciaAlves, Luciana FAshton, PeterBalvanera, PatriciaBastian, Meredith LBellingham, Peter Jvan den Berg, EduardoBernacci, Luisda Conceição Bispo, PolyannaBlanc, LilianBöhning-Gaese, KatrinBoeckx, PascalBongers, FransBoyle, BradBradford, MattBrearley, Francis QHockemba, Mireille Breuer-NdoundouBunyavejchewin, SarayudhMatos, Darley Calderado LealCastillo-Santiago, MiguelCatharino, Eduardo LMChai, Shauna-LeeChen, YukaiColwell, Robert KChazdon, Robin LClark, ConnieClark, David BClark, Deborah ACulmsee, HeikeDamas, KipiroDattaraja, Handanakere SDauby, GillesDavidar, PriyaDeWalt, Saara JDoucet, Jean-LouisDuque, AlvaroDurigan, GiseldaEichhorn, Karl AOEisenlohr, Pedro VEler, EduardoEwango, CorneilleFarwig, NinaFeeley, Kenneth JFerreira, LeandroField, Richardde Oliveira Filho, Ary TFletcher, ChristineForshed, OlleFranco, GeraldoFredriksson, GabriellaGillespie, ThomasGillet, Jean-FrançoisAmarnath, GirirajGriffith, Daniel MGrogan, JamesGunatilleke, NimalHarris, DavidHarrison, RhettHector, AndyHomeier, JürgenImai, NobuoItoh, AkiraJansen, Patrick AJoly, Carlos Ade Jong, Bernardus HJKartawinata, KuswataKearsley, ElizabethKelly, Daniel LKenfack, DavidKessler, MichaelKitayama, KanehiroKooyman, RobertLarney, EileenLaumonier, YvesLaurance, SusanLaurance, William FLawes, Michael Jdo Amaral, Ieda LeaoLetcher, Susan GLindsell, JeremyLu, XinghuiMansor, AsyrafMarjokorpi, AnttiMartin, Emanuel HMeilby, HenrikMelo, Felipe PLMetcalfe, Daniel JMedjibe, Vincent PMetzger, Jean PaulMillet, JeromeMohandass, DMontero, Juan Cde Morisson Valeriano, MárcioMugerwa, BadruNagamasu, HidetoshiNilus, ReubenOchoa-Gaona, Susana
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 112(24)
Subject
Life Below Water
Biodiversity
Conservation of Natural Resources
Databases
Factual
Ecosystem
Forests
Phylogeography
Rainforest
Species Specificity
Statistics
Nonparametric
Trees
Tropical Climate
diversity estimation
Fisher's log series
pantropical
spatial richness patterns
tropical tree species richness
Fisher’s log series
Language
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.