Scientists Map the Backbone Species of Tropical Forests

Scientists have actually discovered that a little number of tree < period class ="glossaryLink" aria-describedby ="tt" data-cmtooltip ="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>species</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.</div>" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex ="0" function ="link" > types control tropical forests worldwide, challenging previous concepts about the variety of these environments.

A significant global partnership of356 researchers led by UCL scientists has actually discovered practically similar patterns of tree variety throughout the world’s tropical forests.

The research study of over one million trees throughout 1,568 areas, released today(January10) in(************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** )(****************** ), discovered that simply 2.2 %of tree types comprise50% of the overall variety of trees in tropical forests throughoutAfrica, theAmazon, andSoutheastAsiaEach continent includes the exact same percentage of a couple of typical types and numerous uncommon types.

While tropical forests are well-known for their variety, this is the very first time that researchers have actually studied the commonest trees worldwide’s tropical forests.

The researchers approximate that simply 1,053 types represent half of the world’s800 billion tropical forest trees.(********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* )partner is consisted of 46,000 tree types. The variety of uncommon types is severe, with the rarest 39,500 types representing simply 10% of trees.

Lead authorDr Declan Cooper (UCL Geography and UCL Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research) stated: “Our findings have profound implications for understanding tropical forests. If we focus on understanding the commonest tree species, we can probably predict how the whole forest will respond to today’s rapid environmental changes. This is especially important because tropical forests contain a tremendous amount of stored carbon, and are a globally important carbon sink.”

He continued: “Identifying the prevalence of the most common species gives scientists a new way of looking at tropical forests. Tracking these common species may provide a new way to characterize these forests and in the future possibly gauge a forest’s health more easily.”

The scientists discovered noticeably comparable patterns in the percentage of tree types that prevail, at near 2.2%, regardless of the tropical forests of the Amazon, Africa and Southeast Asia each having a distinct history and varying modern environments.

The Amazon includes a big area of linked forest, while Southeast Asia is an area of mainly detached islands. People just showed up in the Amazon around 20,000 years back, however individuals have actually been residing in African and Southeast Asian forests for more than two times that length of time. In regards to the modern environment, African forests experience a drier and cooler environment than the other 2 tropical forest areas.

Given these striking distinctions, the near-identical patterns of tree variety recommend that a basic system might govern the assembly of tree neighborhoods throughout all the world’s tropical forests. The scientists are not yet able to state what that system may be and it will focus future deal with determining it.

The quotes of typical types stem from analytical analyses, which does not offer the names of the typical trees. To conquer this, the researchers utilized a strategy referred to as resampling to approximate which are the most likely names of the typical types. Their list of 1,119 tree types names, the very first list of typical types of the world’s tropical forests, will permit scientists to focus their efforts on comprehending the ecology of these types, which in turn can offer researchers a short-cut to comprehend the entire forest.

See table listed below for a list of the most typical tropical tree types.

Most typical tropical forest tree types:

Senior author, Professor Simon Lewis (UCL Geography and University of Leeds) stated: “We wanted to look at tropical forests in a new way. Focusing on a few hundred common tree species on each continent, rather than the many thousands of species that we know almost nothing about, can open new ways to understand these precious forests. This focus on the commonest species should not take away from the importance of rare species. Rare species need special attention to protect them, but quick and important gains in knowledge will come from a scientific focus on the commonest tree species.”

The scientists put together forest stock information from undamaged tropical forests that had not been impacted by logging or fire. In each of 1,568 areas, groups recognized and taped every tree with a trunk higher than 10 centimeters in size, in a spot of forest, generally one hectare, which is a square of forest measuring 100 meters on each side.

Professor Lewis has actually been gathering and collecting this information for 20 years. The effort is a cooperation of the biggest plot networks throughout the Amazon (Amazon Tree Diversity Network; RAINFOR), Africa (African Tropical Rainforest Observatory Network, AfriTRON; Central African Plot Network), and Southeast Asia (Slik Diversity Network; T-FORCES), united for the very first time for the released analysis.

This partnership throughout numerous scientists, field assistants, and regional neighborhoods led to an overall of 1,003,805 trees tested, that included 8,493 tree types, throughout 2,048 hectares, comparable to practically 8 square miles of forest. The groups inventoried 1,097 plots in the Amazon amounting to 1,434 hectares, 368 plots in Africa amounting to 450 hectares, and 103 plots in Southeast Asia amounting to 164 hectares.

Reference: “Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities” by Declan L. M. Cooper, Simon L. Lewis, Martin J. P. Sullivan, Paulo I. Prado, Hans ter Steege, Nicolas Barbier, Ferry Slik, Bonaventure Sonk é, Corneille E. N. Ewango, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, Daniel P. P. de Aguiar, Manuel Augusto Ahuite Reategui, Shin-Ichiro Aiba, Bianca Weiss Albuquerque, Francisca Dion ízia de Almeida Matos, Alfonso Alonso, Christian A. Amani, Dário Dantas do Amaral, Iêda Le ão do Amaral, Ana Andrade, Ires Paula de Andrade Miranda, Ilondea B. Angoboy, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Nicol ás Casta ño Arboleda, Luzmila Arroyo, Peter Ashton, Gerardo A. Aymard C, Cl áudia Baider, Timothy R. Baker, Michael Philippe Bessike Balinga, Henrik Balslev, Lindsay F. Banin, Olaf S. 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Zent and Stanford Zent, 10 January 2024, Nature
DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-023-06820- z

This research study was supported by the Natural Environmental Research Council.