News Headline
Analysis: Many tropical tree species have yet to be discovered
Source
Smithsonian
Publication Date
2015-06-05
A global analysis raises the minimum estimated number of tropical tree species to at least 40,000–53,000 worldwide in a paper appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, whose coauthors include researchers from the Center for Tropical Forest Science–Forest Global Earth Observatory (CTFS–ForestGEO) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). Many of these species risk extinction because of their rarity and restriction to small geographic areas, reaffirming the need for comprehensive, pan-tropical conservation efforts.