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Nature Research, Communications Biology, 1(6), 2023

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05514-6

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Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Journal article published in 2023 by Hans ter Steege ORCID, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Iêda Leão do Amaral, Luiz de Souza Coelho, Francisca Dionízia de Almeida Matos, Diógenes de Andrade Lima Filho, Rafael P. Salomão, Florian Wittmann, Carolina V. Castilho, Juan Ernesto Guevara, Marcelo de Jesus Veiga Carim, Oliver L. Phillips, William E. Magnusson, Daniel Sabatier, Juan David Cardenas Revilla and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractUsing 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution.