Published in
Nature Research, Scientific Reports, 1(10), 2020
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-66686-3
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Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora
,
Paulo I. Prado,
Renato A. F. de Lima,
Edwin Pos,
Luiz de Souza Coelho,
Diogenes de Andrade Lima Filho,
Rafael P. Salomão,
I. L. Amaral,
Iêda Leão Amaral,
Francisca Dionízia de Almeida Matos,
Carolina V. Castilho,
Oliver L. Phillips,
Juan Ernesto Guevara,
Marcelo de Jesus Veiga Carim,
Dairon Cárdenas López
and other authors.
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Abstract
AbstractAmazonian 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.