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      The discovery of the Amazonian tree flora with an updated checklist of all known tree taxa

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          Abstract

          Amazonia is the most biodiverse rainforest on Earth, and the debate over how many tree species grow there remains contentious. Here we provide a checklist of all tree species collected to date, and describe spatial and temporal trends in data accumulation. We report 530,025 unique collections of trees in Amazonia, dating between 1707 and 2015, for a total of 11,676 species in 1225 genera and 140 families. These figures support recent estimates of 16,000 total Amazonian tree species based on ecological plot data from the Amazonian Tree Diversity Network. Botanical collection in Amazonia is characterized by three major peaks, centred around 1840, 1920, and 1980, which are associated with flora projects and the establishment of inventory plots. Most collections were made in the 20th century. The number of collections has increased exponentially, but shows a slowdown in the last two decades. We find that a species’ range size is a better predictor of the number of times it has been collected than the species’ estimated basin-wide population size. Finding, describing, and documenting the distribution of the remaining species will require coordinated efforts at under-collected sites.

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          The Relation Between the Number of Species and the Number of Individuals in a Random Sample of an Animal Population

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            Hyperdominance in the Amazonian tree flora.

            The vast extent of the Amazon Basin has historically restricted the study of its tree communities to the local and regional scales. Here, we provide empirical data on the commonness, rarity, and richness of lowland tree species across the entire Amazon Basin and Guiana Shield (Amazonia), collected in 1170 tree plots in all major forest types. Extrapolations suggest that Amazonia harbors roughly 16,000 tree species, of which just 227 (1.4%) account for half of all trees. Most of these are habitat specialists and only dominant in one or two regions of the basin. We discuss some implications of the finding that a small group of species--less diverse than the North American tree flora--accounts for half of the world's most diverse tree community.
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              Modelling conservation in the Amazon basin.

              Expansion of the cattle and soy industries in the Amazon basin has increased deforestation rates and will soon push all-weather highways into the region's core. In the face of this growing pressure, a comprehensive conservation strategy for the Amazon basin should protect its watersheds, the full range of species and ecosystem diversity, and the stability of regional climates. Here we report that protected areas in the Amazon basin--the central feature of prevailing conservation approaches--are an important but insufficient component of this strategy, based on policy-sensitive simulations of future deforestation. By 2050, current trends in agricultural expansion will eliminate a total of 40% of Amazon forests, including at least two-thirds of the forest cover of six major watersheds and 12 ecoregions, releasing 32 +/- 8 Pg of carbon to the atmosphere. One-quarter of the 382 mammalian species examined will lose more than 40% of the forest within their Amazon ranges. Although an expanded and enforced network of protected areas could avoid as much as one-third of this projected forest loss, conservation on private lands is also essential. Expanding market pressures for sound land management and prevention of forest clearing on lands unsuitable for agriculture are critical ingredients of a strategy for comprehensive conservation.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Sci Rep
                Sci Rep
                Scientific Reports
                Nature Publishing Group
                2045-2322
                13 July 2016
                2016
                : 6
                : 29549
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Vondellaan 55, Postbus 9517, 2300 RA Leiden , The Netherlands
                [2 ]Coordenação de Botânica, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi , Av. Magalhães Barata 376, C.P. 399, Belém, PA 66040–170, Brazil
                [3 ]Herbario Amazónico Colombiano, Instituto SINCHI , Calle 20 No 5-44, Bogotá, DF, Colombia
                [4 ]Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD, UMR AMAP) , TA A-51/PS2, Bd. de la Lironde, 34398 Montpellier cedex 5, France
                [5 ]Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 461, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden
                [6 ]Gothenburg Botanical Garden , Carl Skottsbergs gata 22A, SE-413 19, Göteborg, Sweden
                [7 ]Science and Education, The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive , Chicago, IL 60605–2496, USA
                [8 ]Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA
                [9 ]Missouri Botanical Garden , P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri 63166-0299, USA
                Author notes
                [*]

                Present address: Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.

                Article
                srep29549
                10.1038/srep29549
                4942782
                27406027
                386b03a6-8e09-4fe0-93bc-4a5679062354
                Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited

                This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

                History
                : 01 March 2016
                : 17 June 2016
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