An international study, in which several scientists of the CEBA participated, with the support of the IRD Herbarium of French Guiana, which is a partner of the CEBA, just provided the first large-scale inventory of trees of the Amazonian basin.
The researchers show that the world’s first tropical rainforest consists of almost 390 billion trees that belong to about 16 000 different species. They reveal that only 227 species are hyper dominant and account for more than half of Amazonian trees.
These results also indicated that the estimated number of rare species is 11 000. The results were published on October 18th, 2013, in the Science journal, in the form of a synthesis article.
Three laboratories of the CEBA contributed to this publication: Evolution and biological diversity (EDB), Ecology of Guiana Forests (Ecofog), Botany and bioinformatics for plant architecture (Amap).
Among the authors of the publication, we find Daniel Sabatier (Amap, 3rd author), Christopher Baraloto (Ecofog, 4th author), Jean-François Molino (Amap, 10th author), Julien Engel (Ecofog, 56th author), Pascal Petronelli (Ecofog, 59th author) and Jérôme Chave (EDB, 66th author), all members of the CEBA.
Continue with inventories to protect endangered species
This study highlights the uniformity of the base of Amazonia’s forest stand. The hyper dominance of only 227 species implies that the biogeochemical cycles in the Amazonian basin (processes of transport and cyclical transformation of chemical substances) are made to a large extent by a tiny fraction of the plant diversity.
Complementary studies are needed to determine the causes of this hyper dominance. According to the scientists, models of spatial distribution can be used to predict the structure and richness of the forest in non-explored areas, and could be improved by taking into account the environmental data.
Canopy with palm grove of Euterpe oleracea (açaí palm) and Mauritia flexuosa (moriche palm)
Tumuc-Humac mountains, French Guiana, south border with Brazil
© IRD / Daniel Sabatier
For more information, download the following presse release (in French):
CP hyperdominance arbres Amazonie
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Publication references:
Hyperdominance in the Amazonian Tree Flora
Ter Steege H. et al.
Science journal, October 18th, 2013
To access the publication: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/1243092.abstract
Communication contact: Claire Lafleur, CEBA, claire.lafleur@labex-ceba.fr, tel : +594 (0)5 94 38 87 58
