A new study has disclosed that there are almost 400 billion trees growing in the Amazon rainforest, and while there are over 16,000 species of trees, only 227 of these species dominate the rainforest.
The reason for the hyperdominant tree species is unknown but the new information may help experts unlock the secrets of the very diverse ecological hotspot.
"We knew that, normally, a few species dominate ecosystems, but if you have a system that has 16,000 tree species but just 227 make up half of the trees, that was pretty surprising even for us. We don't really know why these species are so incredibly dominant because they do not have any particular ecological feature that stands out," Dr. Hans ter Steege of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center located in the Netherlands said in an interview with BBC.
The authors of the study used the data of 1,170 surveys of the forests in the Amazon contributed by more than 100 experts to give an estimate of the abundance, distribution, and frequency of the different tree species. The data of the different surveys were collected in the span of 10 years covering about half a million trees that represent the 6 million sq km area.
"We found 227 "hyperdominant" species (1.4% of the total) to be so common that together they account for half of all trees in Amazonia, whereas the rarest 11,000 species account for just 0.12% of trees. Most hyperdominants are habitat specialists that have large geographic ranges but are only dominant in one or two regions of the basin, and a median of 41% of trees in individual plots belong to hyperdominants. A disproportionate number of hyperdominants are palms, Myristicaceae, and Lecythidaceae," the study published on the journal Science stated.
The palm tree Euterpe precatoria is estimated to have a number of over five billion within the rainforest. On the other hand, some of the rarest 5,800 tree species only had numbered less than 1,000 trees each.
The new insight about the Amazon contributes to the bigger picture about the area that may help experts come up with policies to help in conservation efforts.
The area covered by the surveys included the Amazon Basin that include portions of Brazil, Colombia and Peru. The study also encompasses the Guiana Shield including parts of French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana. Combining all these, it will be equal to the land area of 48 states of the U.S.
