Communications Biology (Nov 2023)

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 Ramos,
  • Olaf 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

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05514-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

Read online

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.