Abstract
Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations 1–6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories 7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 728-734 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Nature |
| Volume | 625 |
| Issue number | 7996 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 25 Jan 2024 |
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In: Nature, Vol. 625, No. 7996, 25.01.2024, p. 728-734.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities
AU - Cooper, Declan L.M.
AU - Lewis, Simon L.
AU - Sullivan, Martin J.P.
AU - Prado, Paulo I.
AU - ter Steege, Hans
AU - Barbier, Nicolas
AU - Slik, Ferry
AU - Sonké, Bonaventure
AU - Ewango, Corneille E.N.
AU - Adu-Bredu, Stephen
AU - Affum-Baffoe, Kofi
AU - de Aguiar, Daniel P.P.
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AU - Aiba, Shin Ichiro
AU - Albuquerque, Bianca Weiss
AU - de Almeida Matos, Francisca Dionízia
AU - Alonso, Alfonso
AU - Amani, Christian A.
AU - do Amaral, Dário Dantas
AU - do Amaral, Iêda Leão
AU - Andrade, Ana
AU - de Andrade Miranda, Ires Paula
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AU - Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro
AU - Arboleda, Nicolás Castaño
AU - Arroyo, Luzmila
AU - Ashton, Peter
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AU - Baraloto, Chris
AU - Barbosa, Edelcilio Marques
AU - Barbosa, Flávia Rodrigues
AU - Barlow, Jos
AU - Bastin, Jean Francois
AU - Beeckman, Hans
AU - Begne, Serge
AU - Bengone, Natacha Nssi
AU - Berenguer, Erika
AU - Berry, Nicholas
AU - Bitariho, Robert
AU - Boeckx, Pascal
AU - Bogaert, Jan
AU - Bonyoma, Bernard
AU - Boundja, Patrick
AU - Bourland, Nils
AU - Boyemba Bosela, Faustin
AU - Brambach, Fabian
AU - Brienen, Roel
AU - Burslem, David F.R.P.
AU - Camargo, José Luís
AU - Campelo, Wegliane
AU - Cano, Angela
AU - Cárdenas, Sasha
AU - Cárdenas López, Dairon
AU - de Sá Carpanedo, Rainiellen
AU - Carrero Márquez, Yrma Andreina
AU - Carvalho, Fernanda Antunes
AU - Casas, Luisa Fernanda
AU - Castellanos, Hernán
AU - Castilho, Carolina V.
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AU - Coelho de Souza, Fernanda
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AU - Cornejo Valverde, Fernando
AU - Correa, Diego F.
AU - Costa, Flávia R.C.
AU - Costa, Janaina Barbosa Pedrosa
AU - Couteron, Pierre
AU - Culmsee, Heike
AU - Cuni-Sanchez, Aida
AU - Dallmeier, Francisco
AU - Damasco, Gabriel
AU - Dauby, Gilles
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AU - Laurent, Félix
AU - Le, Tinh Cong
AU - Le, Trai Trong
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AU - Leão de Moraes Novo, Evlyn Márcia
AU - Levesley, Aurora
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AU - Licona, Juan Carlos
AU - Lima Filho, Diógenes de Andrade
AU - Lindsell, Jeremy A.
AU - Lopes, Aline
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AU - Mukul, Sharif Ahmed
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AU - Nagamasu, Hidetoshi
AU - Nascimento, Henrique Eduardo Mendonça
AU - Nascimento, Marcelo Trindade
AU - Neill, David
AU - Nilus, Reuben
AU - Noronha, Janaína Costa
AU - Nsenga, Laurent
AU - Núñez Vargas, Percy
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AU - de Oliveira, Edmar Almeida
AU - Ondo, Fidèle Evouna
AU - Palacios Cuenca, Walter
AU - Pansini, Susamar
AU - Pansonato, Marcelo Petratti
AU - Paredes, Marcos Ríos
AU - Paudel, Ekananda
AU - Pauletto, Daniela
AU - Pearson, Richard G.
AU - Pena, José Luis Marcelo
AU - Pennington, R. Toby
AU - Peres, Carlos A.
AU - Permana, Andrea
AU - Petronelli, Pascal
AU - Peñuela Mora, Maria Cristina
AU - Phillips, Juan Fernando
AU - Phillips, Oliver L.
AU - Pickavance, Georgia
AU - Piedade, Maria Teresa Fernandez
AU - Pitman, Nigel C.A.
AU - Ploton, Pierre
AU - Popelier, Andreas
AU - Poulsen, John R.
AU - Prieto, Adriana
AU - Primack, Richard B.
AU - Priyadi, Hari
AU - Qie, Lan
AU - Quaresma, Adriano Costa
AU - de Queiroz, Helder Lima
AU - Ramirez-Angulo, Hirma
AU - Ramos, José Ferreira
AU - Reis, Neidiane Farias Costa
AU - Reitsma, Jan
AU - Revilla, Juan David Cardenas
AU - Riutta, Terhi
AU - Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo
AU - Robiansyah, Iyan
AU - Rocha, Maira
AU - Rodrigues, Domingos de Jesus
AU - Rodriguez-Ronderos, M. Elizabeth
AU - Rovero, Francesco
AU - Rozak, Andes H.
AU - Rudas, Agustín
AU - Rutishauser, Ervan
AU - Sabatier, Daniel
AU - Sagang, Le Bienfaiteur
AU - Sampaio, Adeilza Felipe
AU - Samsoedin, Ismayadi
AU - Satdichanh, Manichanh
AU - Schietti, Juliana
AU - Schöngart, Jochen
AU - Scudeller, Veridiana Vizoni
AU - Seuaturien, Naret
AU - Sheil, Douglas
AU - Sierra, Rodrigo
AU - Silman, Miles R.
AU - Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire
AU - da Silva Guimarães, José Renan
AU - Simo-Droissart, Murielle
AU - Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni
AU - Sist, Plinio
AU - Sousa, Thaiane R.
AU - de Sousa Farias, Emanuelle
AU - de Souza Coelho, Luiz
AU - Spracklen, Dominick V.
AU - Stas, Suzanne M.
AU - Steinmetz, Robert
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AU - Stropp, Juliana
AU - Sukri, Rahayu S.
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AU - Swaine, Michael D.
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AU - Texier, Nicolas
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AU - Thomas, Duncan W.
AU - Thomas, Raquel
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AU - Tirado, Milton
AU - Toirambe, Benjamin
AU - de Toledo, José Julio
AU - Tomlinson, Kyle W.
AU - Torres-Lezama, Armando
AU - Tran, Hieu Dang
AU - Tshibamba Mukendi, John
AU - Tumaneng, Roven D.
AU - Umaña, Maria Natalia
AU - Umunay, Peter M.
AU - Urrego Giraldo, Ligia Estela
AU - Valderrama Sandoval, Elvis H.
AU - Valenzuela Gamarra, Luis
AU - Van Andel, Tinde R.
AU - van de Bult, Martin
AU - van de Pol, Jaqueline
AU - van der Heijden, Geertje
AU - Vasquez, Rodolfo
AU - Vela, César I.A.
AU - Venticinque, Eduardo Martins
AU - Verbeeck, Hans
AU - Veridiano, Rizza Karen A.
AU - Vicentini, Alberto
AU - Vieira, Ima Célia Guimarães
AU - Vilanova Torre, Emilio
AU - Villarroel, Daniel
AU - Villa Zegarra, Boris Eduardo
AU - Vleminckx, Jason
AU - von Hildebrand, Patricio
AU - Vos, Vincent Antoine
AU - Vriesendorp, Corine
AU - Webb, Edward L.
AU - White, Lee J.T.
AU - Wich, Serge
AU - Wittmann, Florian
AU - Zagt, Roderick
AU - Zang, Runguo
AU - Zartman, Charles Eugene
AU - Zemagho, Lise
AU - Zent, Egleé L.
AU - Zent, Stanford
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024, The Author(s).
PY - 2024/1/25
Y1 - 2024/1/25
N2 - Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations 1–6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories 7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.
AB - Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations 1–6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories 7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85182928350
U2 - 10.1038/s41586-023-06820-z
DO - 10.1038/s41586-023-06820-z
M3 - Artículo
C2 - 38200314
AN - SCOPUS:85182928350
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 625
SP - 728
EP - 734
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7996
ER -