Valencia Reyes, Lius Renato2023-11-042023-11-042015-06-161091-649010.1073/pnas.1423147112https://repositorio.puce.edu.ec/handle/123456789/5648http://www.pnas.org/content/112/24/7472.full.pdf?sid=fcc15fdb-f7a2-4e94-82dd-9c22a579c13dThe high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher’s alpha and an approximate pantropical stem total to estimate the minimum number of tropical forest tree species to fall between ∼40,000 and ∼53,000, i.e., at the high end of previous estimates. Contrary to common assumption, the Indo-Pacific region was found to be as species-rich as the Neotropics, with both regions having a minimum of ∼19,000–25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of ∼4,500–6,000 tree species. Very few species are shared among the African, American, and the Indo-Pacific regions. We provide a methodological framework for estimating species richness in trees that may help refine species richness estimates of tree-dependent taxa.enClosedAccessBiodiversidadBosques tropicalesRecursos VegetalesVida SilvestreBiodiversidadBosques tropicalesRecursos VegetalesVida Silvestre