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

Hans ter Steege*, 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, Jean François Molino, Mariana Victória Irume, Maria Pires Martins, José Renan da Silva Guimarães, José Ferreira RamosOlaf S. Bánki, Maria Teresa Fernandez Piedade, Dairon Cárdenas López, Domingos de Jesus Rodrigues, Layon O. Demarchi, Jochen Schöngart, Everton José Almeida, Luciane Ferreira Barbosa, Larissa Cavalheiro, Márcia Cléia Vilela dos Santos, Bruno Garcia Luize, Evlyn Márcia Moraes de Leão Novo, Percy Núñez Vargas, Thiago Sanna Freire Silva, Eduardo Martins Venticinque, Angelo Gilberto Manzatto, Neidiane Farias Costa Reis, John Terborgh, Katia Regina Casula, Euridice N. Honorio Coronado, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Juan Carlos Montero, Flávia R.C. Costa, Ted R. Feldpausch, Adriano Costa Quaresma, Nicolás Castaño Arboleda, Charles Eugene Zartman, Timothy J. Killeen, Beatriz S. Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon-Junior, Rodolfo Vasquez, Bonifacio Mostacedo, Rafael L. Assis, Chris Baraloto, Dário Dantas do Amaral, Julien Engel, Pascal Petronelli, Hernán Castellanos, Marcelo Brilhante de Medeiros, Marcelo Fragomeni Simon, Ana Andrade, José Luís Camargo, William F. Laurance, Susan G.W. Laurance, Lorena Maniguaje Rincón, Juliana Schietti, Thaiane R. Sousa, Emanuelle de Sousa Farias, Maria Aparecida Lopes, José Leonardo Lima Magalhães, Henrique Eduardo Mendonça Nascimento, Helder Lima de Queiroz, Gerardo A. Aymard C, Roel Brienen, Pablo R. Stevenson, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Tim R. Baker, Bruno Barçante Ladvocat Cintra, Yuri Oliveira Feitosa, Hugo F. Mogollón, Joost F. Duivenvoorden, Carlos A. Peres, Miles R. Silman, Leandro Valle Ferreira, José Rafael Lozada, James A. Comiskey, Freddie C. Draper, José Julio de Toledo, Gabriel Damasco, Roosevelt García-Villacorta, Aline Lopes, Alberto Vicentini, Fernando Cornejo Valverde, Alfonso Alonso, Luzmila Arroyo, Francisco Dallmeier, Vitor H.F. Gomes, Eliana M. Jimenez, David Neill, Maria Cristina Peñuela Mora, Janaína Costa Noronha, Daniel P.P. de Aguiar, Flávia Rodrigues Barbosa, Yennie K. Bredin, Rainiellen de Sá Carpanedo, Fernanda Antunes Carvalho, Fernanda Coelho de Souza, Kenneth J. Feeley, Rogerio Gribel, Torbjørn Haugaasen, Joseph E. Hawes, Marcelo Petratti Pansonato, Marcos Ríos Paredes, Jos Barlow, Erika Berenguer, Izaias Brasil da Silva, Maria Julia Ferreira, Joice Ferreira, Paul V.A. Fine, Marcelino Carneiro Guedes, Carolina Levis, Juan Carlos Licona, Boris Eduardo Villa Zegarra, Vincent Antoine Vos, Carlos Cerón, Flávia Machado Durgante, Émile Fonty, Terry W. Henkel, John Ethan Householder, Isau Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Edwin Pos, Marcos Silveira, Juliana Stropp, Raquel Thomas, Doug Daly, Kyle G. Dexter, William Milliken, Guido Pardo Molina, Toby Pennington, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Bianca Weiss Albuquerque, Wegliane Campelo, Alfredo Fuentes, Bente Klitgaard, José Luis Marcelo Pena, J. Sebastián Tello, Corine Vriesendorp, Jerome Chave, Anthony Di Fiore, Renato Richard Hilário, Luciana de Oliveira Pereira, Juan Fernando Phillips, Gonzalo Rivas-Torres, Tinde R. van Andel, Patricio von Hildebrand, William Balee, Edelcilio Marques Barbosa, Luiz Carlos de Matos Bonates, Hilda Paulette Dávila Doza, Ricardo Zárate Gómez, Therany Gonzales, George Pepe Gallardo Gonzales, Bruce Hoffman, André Braga Junqueira, Yadvinder Malhi, Ires Paula de Andrade Miranda, Linder Felipe Mozombite Pinto, Adriana Prieto, Agustín Rudas, Ademir R. Ruschel, Natalino Silva, César I.A. Vela, Egleé L. Zent, Stanford Zent, Angela Cano, Yrma Andreina Carrero Márquez, Diego F. Correa, Janaina Barbosa Pedrosa Costa, Bernardo Monteiro Flores, David Galbraith, Milena Holmgren, Michelle Kalamandeen, Guilherme Lobo, Luis Torres Montenegro, Marcelo Trindade Nascimento, Alexandre A. Oliveira, Maihyra Marina Pombo, Hirma Ramirez-Angulo, Maira Rocha, Veridiana Vizoni Scudeller, Rodrigo Sierra, Milton Tirado, Maria Natalia Umaña, Geertje van der Heijden, Emilio Vilanova Torre, Manuel Augusto Ahuite Reategui, Cláudia Baider, Henrik Balslev, Sasha Cárdenas, Luisa Fernanda Casas, María José Endara, William Farfan-Rios, Cid Ferreira, Reynaldo Linares-Palomino, Casimiro Mendoza, Italo Mesones, Germaine Alexander Parada, Armando Torres-Lezama, Ligia Estela Urrego Giraldo, Daniel Villarroel, Roderick Zagt, Miguel N. Alexiades, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Karina Garcia-Cabrera, Lionel Hernandez, Walter Palacios Cuenca, Susamar Pansini, Daniela Pauletto, Freddy Ramirez Arevalo, Adeilza Felipe Sampaio, Elvis H. Valderrama Sandoval, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Aurora Levesley, Georgia Pickavance, Karina Melgaço

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Using 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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1130
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalCommunications Biology
Volume6
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Nov 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

Funding

This paper is the result of the work of hundreds of different scientists and research institutions in the Amazon over the past 80 years. Without their hard work this analysis would have been impossible. We thank Charles Zartman for the use of plots from Jutai. H.t.S., V.F.G. and R.S. were supported by grant 407232/2013-3 - PVE - MEC/MCTI/CAPES/CNPq/FAPs; P.I.P. had support for this work from CNPq (productivity grant 310885/2017-5) and FAPESP (research grant #09/53413-5); C.B. was supported by grant FAPESP 95/3058-0 - CRS 068/96 WWF Brasil - The Body Shop; D.S., J.F.M., J.E., P.P. and J.C. benefited from an “Investissement d’Avenir” grant managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (CEBA: ANR-10-LABX-25-01); H.L.Q./M.A.P./J.L.L.M. received financial supported by MCT/CNPq/CT-INFRA/GEOMA #550373/2010-1 and # 457515/2012-0, and J.L.L.M. were supported by grant CAPES/PDSE # 88881.135761/2016-01 and CAPES/Fapespa #1530801; The Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) provided a productivity grant to E.M.V. (Grant 308040/2017-1); Floristic identification in plots in the RAINFOR forest monitoring network has been supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grants NE/B503384/1, NE/D01025X/1, NE/I02982X/1, NE/F005806/1, NE/D005590/1 and NE/I028122/1) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; B.M.F. is funded by FAPESP grant 2016/25086-3. B.S.M., B.H.M.J. and O.L.P. were supported by grants CNPq/CAPES/FAPS/BC-Newton Fund #441244/2016-5 and FAPEMAT/0589267/2016; T.W.H. was funded by National Science Foundation grant DEB-1556338. B.G.L. was supported by FAPESP, grant #2015/24554-0, and #2019/03379-4. W.E.M.: Plots in the PPBio system were financed by the INCT for Amazonian Biodiversity (CENBAM); the Program for Biodiversity Research in Western Amazonia (PPBio-AmOc) and a Productivity Grant (PQ - 301873/2016-0). Finally, we thank four reviewers for their questions and comments, which have greatly improved the manuscript.

FundersFunder number
FAPSFAPEMAT/0589267/2016, 441244/2016-5
PDSE88881.135761/2016-01
Program for Biodiversity Research in Western AmazoniaPQ - 301873/2016-0
WWF Brasil - The Body Shop
National Science Foundation2019/03379-4, 2015/24554-0, DEB-1556338
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation2016/25086-3
National Research Council308040/2017-1
UK Natural Environment Research CouncilNE/D005590/1, NE/I028122/1, NE/B503384/1, NE/D01025X/1, NE/F005806/1, NE/I02982X/1
Agence Nationale de la Recherche457515/2012-0, ANR-10-LABX-25-01, MCT/CNPq/CT-INFRA/GEOMA #550373/2010-1
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo09/53413-5, 95/3058-0 - CRS 068/96
Fundação Amazônia Paraense de Amparo à Pesquisa1530801
Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia para Excitotoxicidade e Neuroproteção

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