Abstract
AbstractAimsTrees dominate the biomass in many ecosystems and are essential for ecosystem functioning and human well‐being. They are also one of the best‐studied functional groups of plants, with vast amounts of biodiversity data available in scattered sources. We here aim to illustrate that an efficient integration of these data could produce a more holistic understanding of vegetation.MethodsTo assess the extent of potential data integration, we use key databases of plant biodiversity to: (a) obtain a list of tree species and their distributions; (b) identify coverage of and gaps in different aspects of tree biodiversity data; and (c) discuss large‐scale patterns of tree biodiversity in relation to vegetation.ResultsOur global list of trees included 58,044 species. Taxonomic coverage varies in three key databases, with data on the distribution, functional traits, and molecular sequences for about 84%, 45% and 44% of all tree species, which is >10% greater than for plants overall. For 28% of all tree species, data are available in all three databases. However, less data are digitally accessible about the demography, ecological interactions, and socio‐economic role of tree species. Integrating and imputing existing tree biodiversity data, mobilization of non‐digitized resources and targeted data collection, especially in tropical countries, could help closing some of the remaining data gaps.ConclusionsDue to their key ecosystem roles and having large amounts of accessible data, trees are a good model group for understanding vegetation patterns. Indeed, tree biodiversity data are already beginning to elucidate the community dynamics, functional diversity, evolutionary history and ecological interactions of vegetation, with great potential for future applications. An interoperable and openly accessible framework linking various databases would greatly benefit future macroecological studies and should be linked to a platform that makes information readily accessible to end users in biodiversity conservation and management.
Highlights
Trees are the building blocks of many terrestrial ecosystems (Crowther et al, 2015; Bastin et al, 2017)
We evaluated the completeness of publicly available tree biodiversity data by determining the number of species in the “tree list” for which data were available in the selected databases
Important data gaps remain, a comprehensive, integrated synthesis of tree biodiversity data is feasible. We show that such an approach, especially when combined with gap-filling approaches, can provide an increasingly complete understanding of biodiversity patterns, community dynamics, and ecological interactions of vegetation and biodiversity
Summary
Trees are the building blocks of many terrestrial ecosystems (Crowther et al, 2015; Bastin et al, 2017). Trees play key roles in biogeochemical cycling and have a major effect on global climate through their role in carbon and water cycling (Spracklen et al, 2012; Lindenmayer & Laurance, 2017) Because of their extraordinary importance to ecosystems and to humans since prehistoric times (Fenning & Gershenzon, 2002), trees are among the best-studied plant groups and, have the potential to provide important insights about large-scale patterns of vegetation biodiversity and composition. Available data cover different aspects of biodiversity, ranging from taxonomic to socio-economic information (Figure 1) and are spread across multiple sources and locations, such as local and regional databases, literature and natural history collections (Beaman & Cellinese, 2012; Jetz et al, 2012; König et al, 2019) This information is being digitized to create comprehensive databases, an increasing proportion of which are open access (Appendix S1). We: (a) summarize key data available for different aspects of tree biodiversity and quantify their limitations with respect to coverage and accessibility; (b) evaluate the representation of trees in selected key databases; (c) identify the most important gaps in tree biodiversity data and outline steps required to fill them; and (d) explore potential applications of integrated tree biodiversity data to improve our understanding of vegetation patterns and processes
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