There are nine thousand tree species yet to be discovered
Environment — di Elisabetta Scuri
There are 73,300 tree species in the world, nine thousand of which have not yet been documented. Most of them are likely to be found in South America.
There are nine thousand tree species yet to be discovered
There are 73,300 tree species in the world, nine thousand of which have not yet been documented. Most of them are likely to be found in South America.
- Earth is home to more than 73,000 tree species, 14 per cent more than previously believed.
- This is the estimate of a group of researchers who collected data in ninety countries.
- Based on their calculations, around nine thousand varieties have yet to be described, many of which are probably at risk of extinction.
We have good news and bad news. The good news is that there are more trees on the Planet than we thought: the hypothesis is that around 73,300 species exist, 14 per cent more than previously estimated. The bad news is that we could lose many of them before we ever get to admire them. As many as nine thousand have not yet been documented, one third of which are considered rare and therefore vulnerable to climate change and deforestation. This has been revealed by a group of thousands of researchers who gathered information on 38 million trees in ninety countries, walking for days at a time and camping in the most remote locations.
Alan Turing's fingerprints
To reach this conclusion, the scientists drew on a methodology developed by Alan Turing — the brilliant British mathematician who, during the Second World War, cracked the Nazis' coded messages — and his assistant Irving John Good. It is a technique that Dr Anne Chao, a statistics expert from Taiwan, was able to adapt to the search for unknown species.
A puzzle of tree species
"Counting all the types of trees that exist is like putting together a puzzle with pieces scattered all over the world. We solved it together, as a team, each one sharing a piece," said Jingjing Liang, one of the study's lead authors, whose findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Pnas).
It is thought that 40 per cent of the varieties yet to be discovered are located in South America. Some may perhaps be known to indigenous peoples, while others could be found in locations so remote that they have never come into contact with humans. The Amazon basin is the area that can boast the highest local diversity of tree species, averaging two hundred per hectare.
"Forests are not just carbon sinks or resources to be exploited. We need to start thinking of them as treasure troves of biodiversity to be preserved," concludes Liang. Evolution has taken billions of years. We cannot afford to throw it all away within the space of a century.