An estimate of the number of tropical tree species.
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2015-06-16
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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 ∼ 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.
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Slik, JW Ferry, Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez, Shin-Ichiro Aiba, Patricia Alvarez-Loayza, Luciana F Alves, Peter Ashton, Patricia Balvanera, Meredith L Bastian, et al. (2015). An estimate of the number of tropical tree species. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 112(24). pp. 7472–7477. 10.1073/pnas.1423147112 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15872.
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John Wiley Williams
John Williams, MD, MHS, is a Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and a past recipient of VA Health Services Career Development and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Faculty Scholar Awards. He received his bachelor and MD degrees from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Williams completed residency training at the University of Iowa and a research fellowship at Duke University. He is a primary care internist who is trained in epidemiology, biostatistics, and literature synthesis. Dr. Williams’ topical interests include depression, mental health services, dementia and implementation of best practices. He is a medical editor for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Evidence-base Practice Program. Dr. Williams is Senior Science Advisor to the Durham VA Evidence Synthesis Program and has led numerous systematic reviews, many focusing on mental health services. Dr. Williams is board certified in Internal Medicine and active in clinical practice and resident physician education at the Durham VAMC.
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