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An estimate of the number of tropical tree species

Slik, J.W. Ferry; Arroyo-Rodr�guez, V�ctor; Aiba, Shin-Ichiro; Alvarez-Loayza, Patricia; Alves, Luciana F.; Field, Richard

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Authors

J.W. Ferry Slik

V�ctor Arroyo-Rodr�guez

Shin-Ichiro Aiba

Patricia Alvarez-Loayza

Luciana F. Alves



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.

Citation

Slik, J. F., Arroyo-Rodríguez, V., Aiba, S., Alvarez-Loayza, P., Alves, L. F., & Field, R. (2015). An estimate of the number of tropical tree species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(24), https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423147112

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jun 1, 2015
Deposit Date Jul 9, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Print ISSN 0027-8424
Electronic ISSN 1091-6490
Publisher National Academy of Sciences
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 112
Issue 24
DOI https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423147112
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/750648
Publisher URL http://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/E4628.short
Related Public URLs http://www.pnas.org/content/112/24/7472
Additional Information Not all authors listed.

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