Earth is home to 14% more tree species than previously thought

Feb 01, 2022

Planet Earth is home to 14% more tree species than previously thought, with thousands yet to be discovered, according to a global count conducted by dozens of researchers around the world.

The new study, compiled by 140 researchers in 100 countries, estimates the world to have 73,300 species, with 9,000 not even yet discovered.

But most undiscovered species are rare and live in tropical forests, which are being chipped away at by human activity or its consequences, including the climate crisis, deforestation and fires.

Despite our reliance on trees for things like regulating weather and providing food, timber, medicine and work, we still “lack a fundamental understanding of how many species exist on our planet”, researchers said.

This knowledge would help us assess which systems can best cope with global change, which need conserving, or how future changes will impact ecosystems, they added.

The report is based on a database of more than 35 million trees in more than 100,000 sites around the world.

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Researchers combined this data with statistical techniques to estimate the overall number of tree species.

South America is home to almost 17,000 species and an expected 40% of all undiscovered tree species.

Oceania and Eurasia have roughly 4,500 species each, Africa has 3,500 and North America 1,800.

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