Dataset Information

The number of tree species on Earth.

ABSTRACT: One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness.

SUBMITTER: Cazzolla Gatti R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8833151 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The number of tree species on Earth.

Cazzolla Gatti Roberto R Reich Peter B PB Gamarra Javier G P JGP Crowther Tom T Hui Cang C Morera Albert A Bastin Jean-Francois JF de-Miguel Sergio S Nabuurs Gert-Jan GJ Svenning Jens-Christian JC Serra-Diaz Josep M JM Merow Cory C Enquist Brian B Kamenetsky Maria M Lee Junho J Zhu Jun J Fang Jinyun J Jacobs Douglass F DF Pijanowski Bryan B Banerjee Arindam A Giaquinto Robert A RA Alberti Giorgio G Almeyda Zambrano Angelica Maria AM Alvarez-Davila Esteban E Araujo-Murakami Alejandro A Avitabile Valerio V Aymard Gerardo A GA Balazy Radomir R Baraloto Chris C Barroso Jorcely G JG Bastian Meredith L ML Birnbaum Philippe P Bitariho Robert R Bogaert Jan J Bongers Frans F Bouriaud Olivier O Brancalion Pedro H S PHS Brearley Francis Q FQ Broadbent Eben North EN Bussotti Filippo F Castro da Silva Wendeson W César Ricardo Gomes RG Češljar Goran G Chama Moscoso Víctor V Chen Han Y H HYH Cienciala Emil E Clark Connie J CJ Coomes David A DA Dayanandan Selvadurai S Decuyper Mathieu M Dee Laura E LE Del Aguila Pasquel Jhon J Derroire Géraldine G Djuikouo Marie Noel Kamdem MNK Van Do Tran T Dolezal Jiri J Đorđević Ilija Đ IĐ Engel Julien J Fayle Tom M TM Feldpausch Ted R TR Fridman Jonas K JK Harris David J DJ Hemp Andreas A Hengeveld Geerten G Herault Bruno B Herold Martin M Ibanez Thomas T Jagodzinski Andrzej M AM Jaroszewicz Bogdan B Jeffery Kathryn J KJ Johannsen Vivian Kvist VK Jucker Tommaso T Kangur Ahto A Karminov Victor N VN Kartawinata Kuswata K Kennard Deborah K DK Kepfer-Rojas Sebastian S Keppel Gunnar G Khan Mohammed Latif ML Khare Pramod Kumar PK Kileen Timothy J TJ Kim Hyun Seok HS Korjus Henn H Kumar Amit A Kumar Ashwani A Laarmann Diana D Labrière Nicolas N Lang Mait M Lewis Simon L SL Lukina Natalia N Maitner Brian S BS Malhi Yadvinder Y Marshall Andrew R AR Martynenko Olga V OV Monteagudo Mendoza Abel L AL Ontikov Petr V PV Ortiz-Malavasi Edgar E Pallqui Camacho Nadir C NC Paquette Alain A Park Minjee M Parthasarathy Narayanaswamy N Peri Pablo Luis PL Petronelli Pascal P Pfautsch Sebastian S Phillips Oliver L OL Picard Nicolas N Piotto Daniel D Poorter Lourens L Poulsen John R JR Pretzsch Hans H Ramírez-Angulo Hirma H Restrepo Correa Zorayda Z Rodeghiero Mirco M Rojas Gonzáles Rocío Del Pilar RDP Rolim Samir G SG Rovero Francesco F Rutishauser Ervan E Saikia Purabi P Salas-Eljatib Christian C Schepaschenko Dmitry D Scherer-Lorenzen Michael M Šebeň Vladimír V Silveira Marcos M Slik Ferry F Sonké Bonaventure B Souza Alexandre F AF Stereńczak Krzysztof Jan KJ Svoboda Miroslav M Taedoumg Hermann H Tchebakova Nadja N Terborgh John J Tikhonova Elena E Torres-Lezama Armando A van der Plas Fons F Vásquez Rodolfo R Viana Helder H Vibrans Alexander C AC Vilanova Emilio E Vos Vincent A VA Wang Hua-Feng HF Westerlund Bertil B White Lee J T LJT Wiser Susan K SK Zawiła-Niedźwiecki Tomasz T Zemagho Lise L Zhu Zhi-Xin ZX Zo-Bi Irié C IC Liang Jingjing J

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20220201 6

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indica ...[more]

PMID: 35101981

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Project description:An international data science challenge, called National Ecological Observatory Network-National Institute of Standards and Technology data science evaluation, was set up in autumn 2017 with the goal to improve the use of remote sensing data in ecological applications. The competition was divided into three tasks: (1) individual tree crown (ITC) delineation, for identifying the location and size of individual trees; (2) alignment between field surveyed trees and ITCs delineated on remote sensing data; and (3) tree species classification. In this paper, the methods and results of team Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM) are presented. The ITC delineation (Task 1 of the challenge) was done using a region growing method applied to a near-infrared band of the hyperspectral images. The optimization of the parameters of the delineation algorithm was done in a supervised way on the basis of the Jaccard score using the training set provided by the organizers. The alignment (Task 2) between the delineated ITCs and the field surveyed trees was done using the Euclidean distance among the position, the height, and the crown radius of the ITCs and the field surveyed trees. The classification (Task 3) was performed using a support vector machine classifier applied to a selection of the hyperspectral bands and the canopy height model. The selection of the bands was done using the sequential forward floating selection method and the Jeffries Matusita distance. The results of the three tasks were very promising: team FEM ranked first in the data science competition in Task 1 and 2, and second in Task 3. The Jaccard score of the delineated crowns was 0.3402, and the results showed that the proposed approach delineated both small and large crowns. The alignment was correctly done for all the test samples. The classification results were good (overall accuracy of 88.1%, kappa accuracy of 75.7%, and mean class accuracy of 61.5%), although the accuracy was biased toward the most represented species.

Dataset Information

The number of tree species on Earth.

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The number of tree species on Earth.

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