Global count estimates Earth has 73,000 tree species – 14% more than reported

[UngulateNerd92]

Second world war codebreaking calculations used at Bletchley Park find 9,000 of those species are yet to be discovered.

There are an estimated 73,300 species of tree on Earth, 9,000 of which have yet to be discovered, according to a global count of tree species by thousands of researchers who used second world war codebreaking techniques created at Bletchley Park to evaluate the number of unknown species.

Researchers working on the ground in 90 countries collected information on 38 million trees, sometimes walking for days and camping in remote places to reach them. The study found there are about 14% more tree species than previously reported and that a third of undiscovered tree species are rare, meaning they could be vulnerable to extinction by human-driven changes in land use and the climate crisis.

“It is a massive effort for the whole world to document our forests,” said Jingjing Liang, a lead author of the paper and professor of quantitative forest ecology at Purdue University in Indiana, US. “Counting the number of tree species worldwide is like a puzzle with pieces spreading all over the world. We solved it together as a team, each sharing our own piece.”

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...etchley-park-good-turing-frequency-estimation

 

[UngulateNerd92]

Here is another relevant article.

Earth has more tree species than we thought

There are 14% more tree species than previously thought, according to what researchers are calling the first "scientifically credible" estimate.

Of the 73,300 estimated species, the researchers predict there are 9,200 that are yet to be discovered.

But most rare species are in tropical forests, fast disappearing because of climate change and deforestation.

The study is based on a database of tens of millions of trees in more than 100,000 forest plots around the world.

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60198433.amp