Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora

Casta?o Arboleda, Nicol?s; Vicentini, Alberto; Lozada, Jos? Rafael; Ferreira, Leandro Valle; Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro; Mogoll?n, Hugo F.; Duivenvoorden, Joost F.; Feitosa, Yuri Oliveira; Comiskey, James A.; de Toledo, Jos? Julio; Damasco, Gabriel; D?vila, N?llarett; Garc?a-Villacorta, Roosevelt; Lopes, Aline; Draper, Freddie; Cornejo Valverde, Fernando; Revilla, Juan David Cardenas; Lloyd, Jon; Carvalho, Fernanda Antunes; Arroyo, Luzmila; Gribel, Rogerio; de Souza, Fernanda Coelho; Dallmeier, Francisco; Alonso, Alfonso; Neill, David; de Aguiar, Daniel Praia Portela; Jimenez, Eliana M.; Pe?uela Mora, Maria Cristina; Villa, Boris; Ferreira, Joice; Barlow, Jos; Brienen, Roel; Vieira, Ima C?lia Guimar?es; Fine, Paul V. A.; Petronelli, Pascal; Sch?ngart, Jochen; Zartman, Charles Eugene; Killeen, Timothy J.; Marimon, Beatriz S.; Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur; Vasquez, Rodolfo; Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni; Castellanos, Hern?n; Mostacedo, Bonifacio; Assis, Rafael L.; Demarchi, Layon O.; Feldpausch, T...

Abstract

© 2020, The Author(s). Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes conspecific spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals, where aggregation increases with rarity. By averaging several methods to estimate total richness, we confirm that over 15,000 tree species are expected to occur in Amazonia. We also show that using ten times the number of plots would result in an increase to just ~50% of those 15,000 estimated species. To get a more complete sample of all tree species, rigorous field campaigns may be needed but the number of trees in Amazonia will remain an estimate for years to come.

Citation

Feitosa, Y. O., Zartman, C. E., Killeen, T. J., Fine, P. V. A., Guedes, M. C., Barlow, J., …van der Heijden, G. (2020). Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora. Scientific Reports, 10(1), Article 10130. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66686-3

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 19, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 23, 2020
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Oct 9, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 12, 2020
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Print ISSN: 2045-2322
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 10130
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66686-3
• Keywords: Multidisciplinary
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4747987
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66686-3