Published in
National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6(119), 2022
Links
Tools
The number of tree species on Earth
,
Peter B. Reich ,
Javier G. P. Gamarra ,
Tom Crowther,
Cang Hui ,
Albert Morera ,
Jean-Francois Bastin,
Sergio de-Miguel ,
Gert-Jan Nabuurs,
Jens-Christian Svenning ,
Josep M. Serra-Diaz ,
Cory Merow,
Brian Enquist,
Maria Kamenetsky ,
Junho Lee
and other authors.
Full text: Download
Abstract
Significance Tree diversity is fundamental for forest ecosystem stability and services. However, because of limited available data, estimates of tree diversity at large geographic domains still rely heavily on published lists of species descriptions that are geographically uneven in coverage. These limitations have precluded efforts to generate a global perspective. Here, based on a ground-sourced global database, we estimate the number of tree species at biome, continental, and global scales. We estimated a global tree richness (≈73,300) that is ≈14% higher than numbers known today, with most undiscovered species being rare, continentally endemic, and tropical or subtropical. These results highlight the vulnerability of global tree species diversity to anthropogenic changes.