Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa

BMC Biology

Research Article

Rainer Zaiss¹  Steven Dessein²  Piet Stoffelen²  Steven Janssens²  Henry Engledow²  Marc S. M. Sosef²  Tariq Stévart³  Rui Figueira⁴  Luís Catarino⁵  Maria Cristina Duarte⁵  Vincent Deblauwe⁶  Thomas L. P. Couvreur⁷  Gilles Dauby⁸  Geoffrey Fadeur⁹  Pierre Meerts^1,10  Vincent Droissart^1,11  Alexandra C. Ley^1,12  Bonaventure Sonké^1,13  Pierre Sepulchre^1,14  Olivier J. Hardy^1,15  Roy E. Gereau^1,16  Jeike L. van de Poel^1,17  Yannick Klomberg^1,18  Janneke de Heij^1,19  David J. Harris^2,20  Xander van der Burgt^2,21  John Dransfield^2,21  Barbara A. Mackinder^2,22  Anne Blach-Overgaard^2,23  Jens-Christian Svenning^2,23  Theo Damen^2,24  Jan J. Wieringa^2,25 

[1] AMAP, CNRS, INRA, IRD, Université Montpellier, Montpellier, France;Botanic Garden Meise, Nieuwelaan 38, BE-1860, Meise, Belgium;Botanic Garden Meise, Nieuwelaan 38, BE-1860, Meise, Belgium;Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique Africaine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium;Missouri Botanical Garden, Africa & Madagascar Department, P.O. Box 299, 63166-0299, St. Louis, Missouri, USA;CIBIO/InBio, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal;CEABN/InBio, Centro de Ecologia Aplicada “Professor Baeta Neves”, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, 1349-017, Tapada da Ajuda, Lisboa, Portugal;Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (CE3C), Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal;DIADE, Université Montpellier, IRD, Montpellier, France;Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique Africaine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium;Laboratoire de Botanique systématique et d’Écologie, Département des Sciences Biologiques, École Normale Supérieure, Université de Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon;Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 951496, 90095, Los Angeles, CA, USA;International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, BP 2008 (Messa), Yaounde, Cameroon;DIADE, Université Montpellier, IRD, Montpellier, France;Laboratoire de Botanique systématique et d’Écologie, Département des Sciences Biologiques, École Normale Supérieure, Université de Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon;Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands;DIADE, Université Montpellier, IRD, Montpellier, France;Laboratoire d’Évolution biologique et Écologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium;CESAB/FRB, Domaine du Petit Arbois, Av. Louis Philibert, 13100, Aix-en-Provence, France;Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique Africaine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium;Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique Africaine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium;Laboratoire d’Ecologie végétale et Biogéochimie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium;Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique Africaine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium;Missouri Botanical Garden, Africa & Madagascar Department, P.O. Box 299, 63166-0299, St. Louis, Missouri, USA;AMAP, CNRS, INRA, IRD, Université Montpellier, Montpellier, France;Institut für Geobotanik und Botanischer Garten, Im Neuwerk 21, University Halle-Wittenberg, 06108, Halle (Saale), Germany;Laboratoire de Botanique systématique et d’Écologie, Département des Sciences Biologiques, École Normale Supérieure, Université de Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon;Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France;Laboratoire d’Évolution biologique et Écologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium;Missouri Botanical Garden, Africa & Madagascar Department, P.O. Box 299, 63166-0299, St. Louis, Missouri, USA;Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands;Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands;Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, 128 44, Prague 2, Czech Republic;Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands;Picturae, De Droogmakerij 12, 1851LX, Heiloo, The Netherlands;Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, UK;Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AE, Surrey, UK;Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AE, Surrey, UK;Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, UK;Section for Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark;Wageningen University, Biosystematics Group, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands;Wageningen University, Biosystematics Group, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands;Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands;

关键词: Herbarium specimens;    Digitization;    Tropical forests;    Botanical exploration;    Plant growth form;    Species richness;    Floristic patterns;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12915-017-0356-8

 received in 2016-11-03, accepted in 2017-01-25,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundUnderstanding 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.ResultsThe 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.ConclusionsThe 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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Couvreur et al. 2017

【 图 表 】

Fig. 4