New Study Designs an Improvement for 46,752 Tree Species That Are Under Substantial Pressure and Poorly Protected

An international team of researchers has revealed that many types of trees are significantly under pressure and poorly secured in new global research of more than 46,000 types of trees.

The significance of trees for environmental cooperation like sequestering carbon makes protecting the diversity of trees on Earth a top sustainability priority.

Examining a recently created database of species of trees covering 46,752 species, scientists strengthen the framework for the effective sustainability of the world's tree diversity.

To establish sustainability priority areas across taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity dimensions, they measured range protection and anthropic pressures for each species.

Furthermore, to protect the top 17% and top 50% of tree priority areas, they also evaluate the efficacy of several impactful proposed sustainability prioritization frameworks.

Diversity of Tree Species

(Photo : PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images)

For ecological systems, our climatic changes, and communities all over the world, trees are crucial. The latest research, however, reveals that many species of trees are rare and endangered, as per ScienceDaily.

This is the reason a biology professor at Aarhus University, Jens-Christian Svenning, decided to start this extensive research project.

He oversaw the mapping of the tree species on Earth before becoming the director of the Institute for BIOCHANGE, which stands for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World.

The research demonstrated that, for such 46,752 tree species examined, the majority of each species' allocation occurs in landscapes lacking any sort of protected areas.

That is, on the whole. The fact that 13.6% of the species have no safety at all leaves them vulnerable. They all have a small geographic range.

Additionally, only 68.5% of the species are now under sufficient pressure from humans, compared to 14.8% that are typical under high and very high pressure.

Only 17% of such species are not affected by human activities.

The researchers determined its statistics by combining registrations of the occurrence of tree species with five sizable data sources.

These facts were used to determine each tree species' geographic distribution.

Then, using the World Database on the areas that are protected, which contains data on more than 200,000 such locations, they merged such distributions with a world map showing the extent to which human operations impact nature.

According to Josep M. Serra-Diaz, a former employee of Aarhus University and currently an associate professor at AgroParisTech in France, by gathering millions of registrations gathered by the researchers and people all across the world and shared in open data sources, experts can measure where it is most important to maintain and reestablish natural areas to successfully protect biodiversity.

The researchers went above and beyond simply quantifying the threat to the world's tree diversity; they also investigated potential solutions.

Wen-Yong Guo, the study's study author who began work at BIOCHANGE but is now associated with East China Normal University in Shanghai, explained that they did this by measuring the most suitable areas of probable protection areas if we are to preserve the diversity of tree species, not only in terms of the species coverage but also in terms of their developmental and functional differences.

Two current strategies for safeguarding biodiversity around the world served as the foundation for the researchers' work.

First, at least 17% of land areas, lakes, and watercourses were to be protected in 2020, according to UN Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which was adopted in 2010.

Second, The Half-Earth Project, put forth by Harvard biologist E.O., is currently being pushed for inclusion in the 2050 Vision of Biodiversity, which is currently being developed.

The Half-Earth Project encourages the preservation of half of the planet's surface by the year 2050.

According to the research group's studies, incorporating such two area targets will have a significant impact.

However, using a broad brush or simply classifying the most practical areas, like untouched tundra and desert regions, won't have the desired outcome.

Scientists have determined the regions where conservation efforts are most necessary to protect the world's tree diversity depending on the measurements in this study.

Tree diversity reaction to human exposure

A research team, led by Aarhus University, also looked at how the classification of aspirational and strategic new protected areas can help to improve the current situation, as published in the journal PNAS.

The diversity of trees on Earth is essential for maintaining ecosystem services and supporting biodiversity.

Utilizing species distance estimates for 46,752 native trees, they found that 83% of native trees experience a non-negligible range of pressures and temperatures across their range, with an estimate of 50.2% of a tree species' range occurring in 110-km grid cells with no protected areas.

Additionally, 6,377 small-range species of tree are completely unprotected.

This situation would be significantly improved by protecting areas selected to best cover different aspects of tree diversity.

The findings demonstrated the necessity of stepping up efforts to secure tree diversity by broadening the scope of protected areas, and integrating tree diversity into land restoration projects in lifeform areas.