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. 2023 Nov 8;6(1):1130.
doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05514-6.

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

Hans Ter Steege  1   2 , Nigel C A Pitman  3 , Iêda Leão do Amaral  4 , Luiz de Souza Coelho  4 , Francisca Dionízia de Almeida Matos  4 , Diógenes de Andrade Lima Filho  4 , Rafael P Salomão  5   6 , Florian Wittmann  7   8 , Carolina V Castilho  9 , Juan Ernesto Guevara  10   11 , Marcelo de Jesus Veiga Carim  12 , Oliver L Phillips  13 , William E Magnusson  14 , Daniel Sabatier  15 , Juan David Cardenas Revilla  4 , Jean-François Molino  15 , Mariana Victória Irume  4 , Maria Pires Martins  4 , José Renan da Silva Guimarães  16 , José Ferreira Ramos  4 , Olaf S Bánki  17 , Maria Teresa Fernandez Piedade  8 , Dairon Cárdenas López  18 , Domingos de Jesus Rodrigues  19 , Layon O Demarchi  8 , Jochen Schöngart  8 , Everton José Almeida  20 , Luciane Ferreira Barbosa  20 , Larissa Cavalheiro  20 , Márcia Cléia Vilela Dos Santos  20 , Bruno Garcia Luize  21 , Evlyn Márcia Moraes de Leão Novo  22 , Percy Núñez Vargas  23 , Thiago Sanna Freire Silva  24 , Eduardo Martins Venticinque  25 , Angelo Gilberto Manzatto  26 , Neidiane Farias Costa Reis  27 , John Terborgh  28   29 , Katia Regina Casula  27 , Euridice N Honorio Coronado  30   31 , Abel Monteagudo Mendoza  23   32 , Juan Carlos Montero  4   33 , Flávia R C Costa  14 , Ted R Feldpausch  13   34 , Adriano Costa Quaresma  7   8 , Nicolás Castaño Arboleda  18 , Charles Eugene Zartman  4 , Timothy J Killeen  35 , Beatriz S Marimon  36 , Ben Hur Marimon-Junior  36 , Rodolfo Vasquez  32 , Bonifacio Mostacedo  37 , Rafael L Assis  38 , Chris Baraloto  39 , Dário Dantas do Amaral  6 , Julien Engel  15   39 , Pascal Petronelli  40 , Hernán Castellanos  41 , Marcelo Brilhante de Medeiros  42 , Marcelo Fragomeni Simon  42 , Ana Andrade  43 , José Luís Camargo  43 , William F Laurance  29 , Susan G W Laurance  29 , Lorena Maniguaje Rincón  4 , Juliana Schietti  4 , Thaiane R Sousa  44 , Emanuelle de Sousa Farias  45   46 , Maria Aparecida Lopes  47 , José Leonardo Lima Magalhães  48   49 , Henrique Eduardo Mendonça Nascimento  4 , Helder Lima de Queiroz  50 , Gerardo A Aymard C  51 , Roel Brienen  13 , Pablo R Stevenson  52 , Alejandro Araujo-Murakami  53 , Tim R Baker  13 , Bruno Barçante Ladvocat Cintra  54 , Yuri Oliveira Feitosa  55 , Hugo F Mogollón  56 , Joost F Duivenvoorden  57 , Carlos A Peres  58 , Miles R Silman  59 , Leandro Valle Ferreira  6 , José Rafael Lozada  60 , James A Comiskey  61   62 , Freddie C Draper  63 , José Julio de Toledo  64 , Gabriel Damasco  65 , Roosevelt García-Villacorta  66   67 , Aline Lopes  68 , Alberto Vicentini  14 , Fernando Cornejo Valverde  69 , Alfonso Alonso  62 , Luzmila Arroyo  53 , Francisco Dallmeier  62 , Vitor H F Gomes  70   71 , Eliana M Jimenez  72 , David Neill  73 , Maria Cristina Peñuela Mora  74 , Janaína Costa Noronha  19 , Daniel P P de Aguiar  75   76 , Flávia Rodrigues Barbosa  19 , Yennie K Bredin  77   78 , Rainiellen de Sá Carpanedo  19 , Fernanda Antunes Carvalho  14   79 , Fernanda Coelho de Souza  13   14 , Kenneth J Feeley  80   81 , Rogerio Gribel  4 , Torbjørn Haugaasen  77 , Joseph E Hawes  82 , Marcelo Petratti Pansonato  4   83 , Marcos Ríos Paredes  84 , Jos Barlow  85 , Erika Berenguer  85   86 , Izaias Brasil da Silva  87 , Maria Julia Ferreira  88 , Joice Ferreira  49 , Paul V A Fine  89 , Marcelino Carneiro Guedes  90 , Carolina Levis  91 , Juan Carlos Licona  33 , Boris Eduardo Villa Zegarra  92 , Vincent Antoine Vos  93 , Carlos Cerón  94 , Flávia Machado Durgante  7   8 , Émile Fonty  15   95 , Terry W Henkel  96 , John Ethan Householder  7 , Isau Huamantupa-Chuquimaco  97 , Edwin Pos  98   99 , Marcos Silveira  100 , Juliana Stropp  101 , Raquel Thomas  102 , Doug Daly  103 , Kyle G Dexter  104   105 , William Milliken  106 , Guido Pardo Molina  93 , Toby Pennington  34   105 , Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira  6 , Bianca Weiss Albuquerque  8 , Wegliane Campelo  64 , Alfredo Fuentes  107   108 , Bente Klitgaard  109 , José Luis Marcelo Pena  110 , J Sebastián Tello  108 , Corine Vriesendorp  3 , Jerome Chave  111 , Anthony Di Fiore  112   113 , Renato Richard Hilário  64 , Luciana de Oliveira Pereira  34 , Juan Fernando Phillips  114 , Gonzalo Rivas-Torres  113   115 , Tinde R van Andel  17   116 , Patricio von Hildebrand  117 , William Balee  118 , Edelcilio Marques Barbosa  4 , Luiz Carlos de Matos Bonates  4 , Hilda Paulette Dávila Doza  84 , Ricardo Zárate Gómez  119 , Therany Gonzales  120 , George Pepe Gallardo Gonzales  84 , Bruce Hoffman  121 , André Braga Junqueira  122 , Yadvinder Malhi  123 , Ires Paula de Andrade Miranda  4 , Linder Felipe Mozombite Pinto  84 , Adriana Prieto  124 , Agustín Rudas  124 , Ademir R Ruschel  49 , Natalino Silva  125 , César I A Vela  126 , Egleé L Zent  127 , Stanford Zent  127 , Angela Cano  52   128 , Yrma Andreina Carrero Márquez  129 , Diego F Correa  52   130 , Janaina Barbosa Pedrosa Costa  90 , Bernardo Monteiro Flores  91 , David Galbraith  13 , Milena Holmgren  131 , Michelle Kalamandeen  132 , Guilherme Lobo  133 , Luis Torres Montenegro  134 , Marcelo Trindade Nascimento  135 , Alexandre A Oliveira  83 , Maihyra Marina Pombo  4 , Hirma Ramirez-Angulo  136 , Maira Rocha  8 , Veridiana Vizoni Scudeller  137 , Rodrigo Sierra  138 , Milton Tirado  138 , Maria Natalia Umaña  139 , Geertje van der Heijden  140 , Emilio Vilanova Torre  136   141 , Manuel Augusto Ahuite Reategui  142 , Cláudia Baider  83   143 , Henrik Balslev  144 , Sasha Cárdenas  52 , Luisa Fernanda Casas  52 , María José Endara  10 , William Farfan-Rios  23   59 , Cid Ferreira  4 , Reynaldo Linares-Palomino  62 , Casimiro Mendoza  145   146 , Italo Mesones  89 , Germaine Alexander Parada  53 , Armando Torres-Lezama  136 , Ligia Estela Urrego Giraldo  147 , Daniel Villarroel  53   148 , Roderick Zagt  149 , Miguel N Alexiades  150 , Edmar Almeida de Oliveira  36 , Karina Garcia-Cabrera  59 , Lionel Hernandez  41 , Walter Palacios Cuenca  151 , Susamar Pansini  27 , Daniela Pauletto  152 , Freddy Ramirez Arevalo  153 , Adeilza Felipe Sampaio  27 , Elvis H Valderrama Sandoval  153   154 , Luis Valenzuela Gamarra  32 , Aurora Levesley  13 , Georgia Pickavance  13 , Karina Melgaço  13
Affiliations

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

Hans Ter Steege et al. Commun Biol. .

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Tree alpha-diversity (Fisher’s alpha) in Amazonia.
A Histogram of tree alpha-diversity in 2046 ATDN plots. Red lines, mean and mean ± 2 sd. B Tree alpha-diversity by major forest type. C Map of tree alpha-diversity across Amazonia. Legend truncated at 0 and mean + 2 standard deviation of the mean. Amazonian Biome limit - red. D Observed values of tree diversity vs modelled values of tree diversity on the 2046 plots used for mapping. The significance or Moran’s I was tested with the function Moran.I() of ape. Marker colours: Red: Terra Firme Pebas Formation; Brown: Terra Firme Brazilian Shield; Orange: Terra Firme Guyana Shield; Yellow: White sand forest; Light blue: Varzea; Dark blue: Igapo; Purple: Swamp. Map created with custom R script. Base map source (country.shp, rivers.shp): ESRI (http://www.esri.com/data/basemaps, © Esri, DeLorme Publishing Company).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Tree species-richness (species/ha) in Amazonia.
A Histogram of tree species-richness in 2046 ATDN plots. B Tree species-richness by major forest type. C Map of tree species-richness across Amazonia. Legend truncated at mean ± 2 standard deviations of the mean. Amazonian Biome limit - red. D Observed values of tree species-richness vs modelled values of tree species-richness on the 2046 plots used for mapping. The significance or Moran’s I was tested with the function Moran.I() of ape. Marker colours: Red: Terra Firme Pebas Formation; Brown: Terra Firme Brazilian Shield; Orange: Terra Firme Guyana Shield; Yellow: White sand forest; Light blue: Varzea; Dark blue: Igapo; Purple: Swamp. Map created with custom R script. Base map source (country.shp, rivers.shp): ESRI (http://www.esri.com/data/basemaps, © Esri, DeLorme Publishing Company).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness of terra-firme forest in Amazonia.
A Map of interpolated tree alpha-diversity (Fisher’s alpha), based on 1441 terra firme plots. B Map of tree species-richness (number of species/ha by plot), based on 1441 terra firme plots. Red polygon: Amazonian Biome limit. Map created with custom R script. Base map source (country.shp, rivers.shp): ESRI (http://www.esri.com/data/basemaps, © Esri, DeLorme Publishing Company).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. The effect of cumulative water deficit (mm), tree density, and temperature seasonality on tree species-richness.
A Tree species-richness observed. B Tree species-richness as predicted by cumulative water deficit, regional tree density, and temperature seasonality. C Model performance, showing predicted and observed tree species-richness. D Residuals of tree species-richness predicted by cumulative water deficit, regional tree density, and temperature seasonality (A, B). All figures based on 1441 terra firme plots. Amazonian Biome limit - red. Map created with custom R script. Base map source (country.shp, rivers.shp): ESRI (http://www.esri.com/data/basemaps, © Esri, DeLorme Publishing Company).
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