Publications

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Cooper, Declan L.M.; Lewis, Simon L.; Sullivan, Martin J.P.; Prado, Paulo I.; ter Steege, Hans; Barbier, Nicolas; Slik, Ferry; Sonké, Bonaventure; Ewango, Corneille E.N.; Adu-Bredu, Stephen; Affum-Baffoe, Kofi; de Aguiar, Daniel P.P.; Ahuite Reategui, Manuel Augusto; Aiba, Shin Ichiro; Albuquerque, Bianca Weiss; de Almeida Matos, Francisca Dionízia; Alonso, Alfonso; Amani, Christian A.; do Amaral, Dário Dantas; do Amaral, Iêda Leão; Andrade, Ana; de Andrade Miranda, Ires Paula; Angoboy, Ilondea B.; Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro; Arboleda, Nicolás Castaño; Arroyo, Luzmila; Ashton, Peter; Aymard C, Gerardo A.; Baider, Cláudia; Baker, Timothy R.; Balinga, Michael Philippe Bessike; Balslev, Henrik; Banin, Lindsay F.; Bánki, Olaf S.; Baraloto, Chris; Barbosa, Edelcilio Marques; Barbosa, Flávia Rodrigues; Barlow, Jos; Bastin, Jean Francois; Beeckman, Hans; Begne, Serge; Bengone, Natacha Nssi; Berenguer, Erika; Berry, Nicholas; Bitariho, Robert; Boeckx, Pascal; Bogaert, Jan; Bonyoma, Bernard; Boundja, Patrick; Bourland, Nils; Boyemba Bosela, Faustin; Brambach, Fabian; Brienen, Roel; Burslem, David F.R.P.; Campelo, Wegliane; Cano, Angela; Cárdenas, Sasha; Cárdenas López, Dairon; de Sá Carpanedo, Rainiellen; Carrero Márquez, Yrma Andreina; Carvalho, Fernanda Antunes; Casas, Luisa Fernanda; Castellanos, Hernán; Castilho, Carolina V.; Cerón, Carlos; Chapman, Colin A.; Chave, Jerome; Chhang, Phourin; Chutipong, Wanlop; Chuyong, George B.; Cintra, Bruno Barçante Ladvocat; Clark, Connie J.; Coelho de Souza, Fernanda; Comiskey, James A.; Coomes, David A.; Cornejo Valverde, Fernando; Correa, Diego F.; Costa, Flávia R.C.; Costa, Janaina Barbosa Pedrosa; Couteron, Pierre; Culmsee, Heike; Cuni-Sanchez, Aida; Dallmeier, Francisco; Damasco, Gabriel; Dauby, Gilles; Dávila, Nállarett; Dávila Doza, Hilda Paulette; De Alban, Jose Don T.; de Assis, Rafael L.; De Canniere, Charles; De Haulleville, Thales; de Jesus Veiga Carim, Marcelo; Demarchi, Layon O.; Dexter, Kyle G.; Di Fiore, Anthony; Din, Hazimah Haji Mohammad; Disney, Mathias I.; Djiofack, Brice Yannick; Djuikouo, Marie Noël K.; Do, Tran Van; Doucet, Jean Louis; Draper, Freddie C.; Droissart, Vincent; Duivenvoorden, Joost F.; Engel, Julien; Estienne, Vittoria; Farfan-Rios, William; Fauset, Sophie; Feeley, Kenneth J.; Feitosa, Yuri Oliveira; Feldpausch, Ted R.; Ferreira, Cid; Ferreira, Joice; Ferreira, Leandro Valle; Fletcher, Christine D.; Flores, Bernardo Monteiro; Fofanah, Alusine; Foli, Ernest G.; Fonty, Émile; Fredriksson, Gabriella M.; Fuentes, Alfredo; Galbraith, David; Gallardo Gonzales, George Pepe; Garcia-Cabrera, Karina; García-Villacorta, Roosevelt; Gomes, Vitor H.F.; Gómez, Ricardo Zárate; Gonzales, Therany; Gribel, Rogerio; Guedes, Marcelino Carneiro; Guevara, Juan Ernesto; Hakeem, Khalid Rehman; Hall, Jefferson S.; Hamer, Keith C.; Hamilton, Alan C.; Harris, David J.; Harrison, Rhett D.; Hart, Terese B.; Hector, Andy; Henkel, Terry W.; Herbohn, John; Hockemba, Mireille B.N.; Hoffman, Bruce; Holmgren, Milena; Honorio Coronado, Euridice N.; Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau; Hubau, Wannes; Imai, Nobuo; Irume, Mariana Victória; Jansen, Patrick A.; Jeffery, Kathryn J.; Jimenez, Eliana M.; Jucker, Tommaso; Junqueira, André Braga; Kalamandeen, Michelle; Kamdem, Narcisse G.; Kartawinata, Kuswata; Kasongo Yakusu, Emmanuel; Katembo, John M.; Kearsley, Elizabeth; Kenfack, David; Kessler, Michael; Khaing, Thiri Toe; Killeen, Timothy J.; Kitayama, Kanehiro; Klitgaard, Bente; Labrière, Nicolas; Laumonier, Yves; Laurance, Susan G.W.; Laurance, William F.; Laurent, Félix; Le, Tinh Cong; Le, Trai Trong; Leal, Miguel E.; Leão de Moraes Novo, Evlyn Márcia; Levesley, Aurora; Libalah, Moses B.; Licona, Juan Carlos; de Andrade Lima Filho, Diógenes; Lindsell, Jeremy A.; Lopes, Aline; Lopes, Maria Aparecida; Lovett, Jon C.; Lowe, Richard; Lozada, José Rafael; Lu, Xinghui; Luambua, Nestor K.; Luize, Bruno Garcia; Maas, Paul; Magalhães, José Leonardo Lima; Magnusson, William E.; Mahayani, Ni Putu Diana; Makana, Jean Remy; Malhi, Yadvinder; Maniguaje Rincón, Lorena; Mansor, Asyraf; Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto; Marimon, Beatriz S.; Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur; Marshall, Andrew R.; Martins, Maria Pires; Mbayu, Faustin M.; de Medeiros, Marcelo Brilhante; Mesones, Italo; Metali, Faizah; Mihindou, Vianet; Millet, Jerome; Milliken, William; Mogollón, Hugo F.; Molino, Jean François; Mohd. Said, Mohd Nizam; Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel; Montero, Juan Carlos; Moore, Sam; Mostacedo, Bonifacio; Mozombite Pinto, Linder Felipe; Mukul, Sharif Ahmed; Munishi, Pantaleo K.T.; Nagamasu, Hidetoshi; Nascimento, Henrique Eduardo Mendonça; Nascimento, Marcelo Trindade; Neill, David; Nilus, Reuben; Noronha, Janaína Costa; Nsenga, Laurent; Núñez Vargas, Percy; Ojo, Lucas; Oliveira, Alexandre A.; de Oliveira, Edmar Almeida; Ondo, Fidèle Evouna; Palacios Cuenca, Walter; Pansini, Susamar; Pansonato, Marcelo Petratti; Paredes, Marcos Ríos; Paudel, Ekananda; Pauletto, Daniela; Pearson, Richard G.; Pena, José Luis Marcelo; Pennington, R.T.; Peres, Carlos A.; Permana, Andrea; Petronelli, Pascal; Peñuela Mora, Maria Cristina; Phillips, Juan Fernando; Phillips, Oliver L.; Pickavance, Georgia; Piedade, Maria Teresa Fernandez; Pitman, Nigel C.A.; Ploton, Pierre; Popelier, Andreas; Poulsen, John R.; Prieto, Adriana; Primack, Richard B.; Priyadi, Hari; Qie, Lan; Quaresma, Adriano Costa; de Queiroz, Helder Lima; Ramirez-Angulo, Hirma; Ramos, José Ferreira; Reis, Neidiane Farias Costa; Reitsma, Jan; Revilla, Juan David Cardenas; Riutta, Terhi; Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo; Robiansyah, Iyan; Rocha, Maira; de Jesus Rodrigues, Domingos; Rodriguez-Ronderos, Elizabeth; Rovero, Francesco; Rozak, Andes H.; Rudas, Agustín; Rutishauser, Ervan; Sabatier, Daniel; Sagang, Le Bienfaiteur; Sampaio, Adeilza Felipe; Samsoedin, Ismayadi; Satdichanh, Manichanh; Schietti, Juliana; Schöngart, Jochen; Scudeller, Veridiana Vizoni; Seuaturien, Naret; Sheil, Douglas; Sierra, Rodrigo; Silman, Miles R.; Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire; da Silva Guimarães, José Renan; Simo-Droissart, Murielle; Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni; Sist, Plinio; Sousa, Thaiane R.; de Sousa Farias, Emanuelle; de Souza Coelho, Luiz; Spracklen, Dominick V.; Stas, Suzanne M.; Steinmetz, Robert; Stevenson, Pablo R.; Stropp, Juliana; Sukri, Rahayu S.; Sunderland, Terry C.H.; Suzuki, Eizi; Swaine, Michael D.; Tang, Jianwei; Taplin, James; Taylor, David M.; Tello, J.S.; Terborgh, John; Texier, Nicolas; Theilade, Ida; Thomas, Duncan W.; Thomas, Raquel; Thomas, Sean C.; Tirado, Milton; Toirambe, Benjamin; de Toledo, José Julio; Tomlinson, Kyle W.; Torres-Lezama, Armando; Tran, Hieu Dang; Tshibamba Mukendi, John; Tumaneng, Roven D.; Umaña, Maria Natalia; Umunay, Peter M.; Urrego Giraldo, Ligia Estela; Valderrama Sandoval, Elvis H.; Valenzuela Gamarra, Luis; van Andel, Tinde R.; van de Bult, Martin; van de Pol, Jaqueline; van der Heijden, Geertje; Vasquez, Rodolfo; Vela, César I.A.; Venticinque, Eduardo Martins; Verbeeck, Hans; Veridiano, Rizza Karen A.; Vicentini, Alberto; Vieira, Ima Célia Guimarães; Vilanova Torre, Emilio; Villarroel, Daniel; Villa Zegarra, Boris Eduardo; Vleminckx, Jason; von Hildebrand, Patricio; Vos, Vincent Antoine; Vriesendorp, Corine; Webb, Edward L.; White, Lee J.T.; Wich, Serge; Wittmann, Florian; Zagt, Roderick; Zang, Runguo; Zartman, Charles Eugene; Zemagho, Lise; Zent, Egleé L.; Zent, Stanford

Summary

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations 1–6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories 7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.