Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa
Background Understanding the patterns of biodiversity distribution and what influences them is a fundamental pre-requisite for effective conservation and sustainable utilisation of biodiversity. Such knowledge is increasingly urgent as biodiversity responds to the ongoing effects of global climate c...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Springer
2017
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/80925 |
| _version_ | 1855531122503450624 |
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| author | Sosef, M.S.M. Dauby, G. Blach-Overgaard, A. Burgt, X. van der Catarino, L. Damen, T. Deblauwe, V. Dessein, S. Dransfield, J. Droissart, V. Duarte, M.C. Engledow, H. Fadeur, G. Figueira, R. Gereau, R.E. Hardy, Olivier J. Harris, D.J. Heij, J. de Janssens, S. Klomberg, Y. Ley, A.C. Mackinder, B.A. Meerts, P. Poel, J.L. van de Sonké, B. Stévart, T. Stoffelen, P. Svenning, Jens Christian Sepulchre, P. Zaiss, R. Wieringa, J.J. Couvreur, T.L.P. |
| author_browse | Blach-Overgaard, A. Burgt, X. van der Catarino, L. Couvreur, T.L.P. Damen, T. Dauby, G. Deblauwe, V. Dessein, S. Dransfield, J. Droissart, V. Duarte, M.C. Engledow, H. Fadeur, G. Figueira, R. Gereau, R.E. Hardy, Olivier J. Harris, D.J. Heij, J. de Janssens, S. Klomberg, Y. Ley, A.C. Mackinder, B.A. Meerts, P. Poel, J.L. van de Sepulchre, P. Sonké, B. Sosef, M.S.M. Stoffelen, P. Stévart, T. Svenning, Jens Christian Wieringa, J.J. Zaiss, R. |
| author_facet | Sosef, M.S.M. Dauby, G. Blach-Overgaard, A. Burgt, X. van der Catarino, L. Damen, T. Deblauwe, V. Dessein, S. Dransfield, J. Droissart, V. Duarte, M.C. Engledow, H. Fadeur, G. Figueira, R. Gereau, R.E. Hardy, Olivier J. Harris, D.J. Heij, J. de Janssens, S. Klomberg, Y. Ley, A.C. Mackinder, B.A. Meerts, P. Poel, J.L. van de Sonké, B. Stévart, T. Stoffelen, P. Svenning, Jens Christian Sepulchre, P. Zaiss, R. Wieringa, J.J. Couvreur, T.L.P. |
| author_sort | Sosef, M.S.M. |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Background
Understanding the patterns of biodiversity distribution and what influences them is a fundamental pre-requisite for effective conservation and sustainable utilisation of biodiversity. Such knowledge is increasingly urgent as biodiversity responds to the ongoing effects of global climate change. Nowhere is this more acute than in species-rich tropical Africa, where so little is known about plant diversity and its distribution. In this paper, we use RAINBIO – one of the largest mega-databases of tropical African vascular plant species distributions ever compiled – to address questions about plant and growth form diversity across tropical Africa.
Results
The filtered RAINBIO dataset contains 609,776 georeferenced records representing 22,577 species. Growth form data are recorded for 97% of all species. Records are well distributed, but heterogeneous across the continent. Overall, tropical Africa remains poorly sampled. When using sampling units (SU) of 0.5°, just 21 reach appropriate collection density and sampling completeness, and the average number of records per species per SU is only 1.84. Species richness (observed and estimated) and endemism figures per country are provided. Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Liberia appear as the botanically best-explored countries, but none are optimally explored. Forests in the region contain 15,387 vascular plant species, of which 3013 are trees, representing 5–7% of the estimated world’s tropical tree flora. The central African forests have the highest endemism rate across Africa, with approximately 30% of species being endemic.
Conclusions
The botanical exploration of tropical Africa is far from complete, underlining the need for intensified inventories and digitization. We propose priority target areas for future sampling efforts, mainly focused on Tanzania, Atlantic Central Africa and West Africa. The observed number of tree species for African forests is smaller than those estimated from global tree data, suggesting that a significant number of species are yet to be discovered. Our data provide a solid basis for a more sustainable management and improved conservation of tropical Africa’s unique flora, and is important for achieving Objective 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011–2020. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace80925 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | Springer |
| publisherStr | Springer |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace809252025-11-11T10:36:01Z Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa Sosef, M.S.M. Dauby, G. Blach-Overgaard, A. Burgt, X. van der Catarino, L. Damen, T. Deblauwe, V. Dessein, S. Dransfield, J. Droissart, V. Duarte, M.C. Engledow, H. Fadeur, G. Figueira, R. Gereau, R.E. Hardy, Olivier J. Harris, D.J. Heij, J. de Janssens, S. Klomberg, Y. Ley, A.C. Mackinder, B.A. Meerts, P. Poel, J.L. van de Sonké, B. Stévart, T. Stoffelen, P. Svenning, Jens Christian Sepulchre, P. Zaiss, R. Wieringa, J.J. Couvreur, T.L.P. tropical forests plant growth forms botanical composition climate change herbarium specimens digitization botanical exploration species richness floristic patterns Background Understanding the patterns of biodiversity distribution and what influences them is a fundamental pre-requisite for effective conservation and sustainable utilisation of biodiversity. Such knowledge is increasingly urgent as biodiversity responds to the ongoing effects of global climate change. Nowhere is this more acute than in species-rich tropical Africa, where so little is known about plant diversity and its distribution. In this paper, we use RAINBIO – one of the largest mega-databases of tropical African vascular plant species distributions ever compiled – to address questions about plant and growth form diversity across tropical Africa. Results The filtered RAINBIO dataset contains 609,776 georeferenced records representing 22,577 species. Growth form data are recorded for 97% of all species. Records are well distributed, but heterogeneous across the continent. Overall, tropical Africa remains poorly sampled. When using sampling units (SU) of 0.5°, just 21 reach appropriate collection density and sampling completeness, and the average number of records per species per SU is only 1.84. Species richness (observed and estimated) and endemism figures per country are provided. Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Liberia appear as the botanically best-explored countries, but none are optimally explored. Forests in the region contain 15,387 vascular plant species, of which 3013 are trees, representing 5–7% of the estimated world’s tropical tree flora. The central African forests have the highest endemism rate across Africa, with approximately 30% of species being endemic. Conclusions The botanical exploration of tropical Africa is far from complete, underlining the need for intensified inventories and digitization. We propose priority target areas for future sampling efforts, mainly focused on Tanzania, Atlantic Central Africa and West Africa. The observed number of tree species for African forests is smaller than those estimated from global tree data, suggesting that a significant number of species are yet to be discovered. Our data provide a solid basis for a more sustainable management and improved conservation of tropical Africa’s unique flora, and is important for achieving Objective 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011–2020. 2017-12 2017-05-09T10:14:52Z 2017-05-09T10:14:52Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/80925 en Open Access application/pdf Springer Sosef, M.S., Dauby, G., Blach-Overgaard, A., van der Burgt, X., Catarino, L., Damen, T., ... & Duarte, M. C. (2017). Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa. BioMed Central Biology, 15(1), 1-23. |
| spellingShingle | tropical forests plant growth forms botanical composition climate change herbarium specimens digitization botanical exploration species richness floristic patterns Sosef, M.S.M. Dauby, G. Blach-Overgaard, A. Burgt, X. van der Catarino, L. Damen, T. Deblauwe, V. Dessein, S. Dransfield, J. Droissart, V. Duarte, M.C. Engledow, H. Fadeur, G. Figueira, R. Gereau, R.E. Hardy, Olivier J. Harris, D.J. Heij, J. de Janssens, S. Klomberg, Y. Ley, A.C. Mackinder, B.A. Meerts, P. Poel, J.L. van de Sonké, B. Stévart, T. Stoffelen, P. Svenning, Jens Christian Sepulchre, P. Zaiss, R. Wieringa, J.J. Couvreur, T.L.P. Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa |
| title | Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa |
| title_full | Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa |
| title_fullStr | Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa |
| title_short | Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa |
| title_sort | exploring the floristic diversity of tropical africa |
| topic | tropical forests plant growth forms botanical composition climate change herbarium specimens digitization botanical exploration species richness floristic patterns |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/80925 |
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