Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities.
Cooper DLM., Lewis SL., Sullivan MJP., Prado PI., Ter Steege H., Barbier N., Slik F., Sonké B., Ewango CEN., Adu-Bredu S., Affum-Baffoe K., de Aguiar DPP., Ahuite Reategui MA., Aiba S-I., Albuquerque BW., de Almeida Matos FD., Alonso A., Amani CA., do Amaral DD., do Amaral IL., Andrade A., de Andrade Miranda IP., Angoboy IB., Araujo-Murakami A., Arboleda NC., Arroyo L., Ashton P., Aymard C GA., Baider C., Baker TR., Balinga MPB., Balslev H., Banin LF., Bánki OS., Baraloto C., Barbosa EM., Barbosa FR., Barlow J., Bastin J-F., Beeckman H., Begne S., Bengone NN., Berenguer E., Berry N., Bitariho R., Boeckx P., Bogaert J., Bonyoma B., Boundja P., Bourland N., Boyemba Bosela F., Brambach F., Brienen R., Burslem DFRP., Camargo JL., Campelo W., Cano A., Cárdenas S., Cárdenas López D., de Sá Carpanedo R., Carrero Márquez YA., Carvalho FA., Casas LF., Castellanos H., Castilho CV., Cerón C., Chapman CA., Chave J., Chhang P., Chutipong W., Chuyong GB., Cintra BBL., Clark CJ., Coelho de Souza F., Comiskey JA., Coomes DA., Cornejo Valverde F., Correa DF., Costa FRC., Costa JBP., Couteron P., Culmsee H., Cuni-Sanchez A., Dallmeier F., Damasco G., Dauby G., Dávila N., Dávila Doza HP., De Alban JDT., de Assis RL., De Canniere C., De Haulleville T., de Jesus Veiga Carim M., Demarchi LO., Dexter KG., Di Fiore A., Din HHM., Disney MI., Djiofack BY., Djuikouo M-NK., Do TV., Doucet J-L., Draper FC., Droissart V., Duivenvoorden JF., Engel J., Estienne V., Farfan-Rios W., Fauset S., Feeley KJ., Feitosa YO., Feldpausch TR., Ferreira C., Ferreira J., Ferreira LV., Fletcher CD., Flores BM., Fofanah A., Foli EG., Fonty É., Fredriksson GM., Fuentes A., Galbraith D., Gallardo Gonzales GP., Garcia-Cabrera K., García-Villacorta R., Gomes VHF., Gómez RZ., Gonzales T., Gribel R., Guedes MC., Guevara JE., Hakeem KR., Hall JS., Hamer KC., Hamilton AC., Harris DJ., Harrison RD., Hart TB., Hector A., Henkel TW., Herbohn J., Hockemba MBN., Hoffman B., Holmgren M., Honorio Coronado EN., Huamantupa-Chuquimaco I., Hubau W., Imai N., Irume MV., Jansen PA., Jeffery KJ., Jimenez EM., Jucker T., Junqueira AB., Kalamandeen M., Kamdem NG., Kartawinata K., Kasongo Yakusu E., Katembo JM., Kearsley E., Kenfack D., Kessler M., Khaing TT., Killeen TJ., Kitayama K., Klitgaard B., Labrière N., Laumonier Y., Laurance SGW., Laurance WF., Laurent F., Le TC., Le TT., Leal ME., Leão de Moraes Novo EM., Levesley A., Libalah MB., Licona JC., Lima Filho DDA., Lindsell JA., Lopes A., Lopes MA., Lovett JC., Lowe R., Lozada JR., Lu X., Luambua NK., Luize BG., Maas P., Magalhães JLL., Magnusson WE., Mahayani NPD., Makana J-R., Malhi Y., Maniguaje Rincón L., Mansor A., Manzatto AG., Marimon BS., Marimon-Junior BH., Marshall AR., Martins MP., Mbayu FM., de Medeiros MB., Mesones I., Metali F., Mihindou V., Millet J., Milliken W., Mogollón HF., Molino J-F., Mohd Said MN., Monteagudo Mendoza A., Montero JC., Moore S., Mostacedo B., Mozombite Pinto LF., Mukul SA., Munishi PKT., Nagamasu H., Nascimento HEM., Nascimento MT., Neill D., Nilus R., Noronha JC., Nsenga L., Núñez Vargas P., Ojo L., Oliveira AA., de Oliveira EA., Ondo FE., Palacios Cuenca W., Pansini S., Pansonato MP., Paredes MR., Paudel E., Pauletto D., Pearson RG., Pena JLM., Pennington RT., Peres CA., Permana A., Petronelli P., Peñuela Mora MC., Phillips JF., Phillips OL., Pickavance G., Piedade MTF., Pitman NCA., Ploton P., Popelier A., Poulsen JR., Prieto A., Primack RB., Priyadi H., Qie L., Quaresma AC., de Queiroz HL., Ramirez-Angulo H., Ramos JF., Reis NFC., Reitsma J., Revilla JDC., Riutta T., Rivas-Torres G., Robiansyah I., Rocha M., Rodrigues DDJ., Rodriguez-Ronderos ME., Rovero F., Rozak AH., Rudas A., Rutishauser E., Sabatier D., Sagang LB., Sampaio AF., Samsoedin I., Satdichanh M., Schietti J., Schöngart J., Scudeller VV., Seuaturien N., Sheil D., Sierra R., Silman MR., Silva TSF., da Silva Guimarães JR., Simo-Droissart M., Simon MF., Sist P., Sousa TR., de Sousa Farias E., de Souza Coelho L., Spracklen DV., Stas SM., Steinmetz R., Stevenson PR., Stropp J., Sukri RS., Sunderland TCH., Suzuki E., Swaine MD., Tang J., Taplin J., Taylor DM., Tello JS., Terborgh J., Texier N., Theilade I., Thomas DW., Thomas R., Thomas SC., Tirado M., Toirambe B., de Toledo JJ., Tomlinson KW., Torres-Lezama A., Tran HD., Tshibamba Mukendi J., Tumaneng RD., Umaña MN., Umunay PM., Urrego Giraldo LE., Valderrama Sandoval EH., Valenzuela Gamarra L., Van Andel TR., van de Bult M., van de Pol J., van der Heijden G., Vasquez R., Vela CIA., Venticinque EM., Verbeeck H., Veridiano RKA., Vicentini A., Vieira ICG., Vilanova Torre E., Villarroel D., Villa Zegarra BE., Vleminckx J., von Hildebrand P., Vos VA., Vriesendorp C., Webb EL., White LJT., Wich S., Wittmann F., Zagt R., Zang R., Zartman CE., Zemagho L., Zent EL., Zent S.
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 locations1-6 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 histories7, 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.