An estimate of the number of tropical tree species

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

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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 similar to 40,000 and similar to 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 similar to 19,000-25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of similar to 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.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Publisher:	NATL ACAD SCIENCES
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the NATL ACAD SCIENCES, 2101 CONSTITUTION AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20418 USA
Keywords:	diversity estimation; Fisher's log series; pantropical; spatial richness patterns; tropical tree species richness
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Earth Sciences
Date Deposited:	31 Jul 2015 05:09
Last Modified:	31 Jul 2015 05:09
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/51916

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