Brazil's Atlantic Forests: New World Record for Tree Diversity
11/25/96
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
Conservation International reports on the recent significant finding
of 476 tree species in a one hectare plot in Santa Teresa, Brazil.
This amazing level of tree diversity is a testament to the need to
protect and study remaining rainforests. It is terrible policy
ecologically, economically and socially to continue indiscrimately
industrially clearing virgin forests without even knowing what is
there.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
October 23, 1996
Contact: Lisa S. Bowen
Email: L.Bowen@conservation.org
(202) 973-2204
New World Record For Tree Diversity
ESPIRITO SANTO, BRAZIL - Brazilian scientists from the state of
Espirito Santo announced this week a new world record for tree
diversity. Dr. Sergio Lucena Mendes, Director of the Museu de Biologia
Professor Mello Leitao in Santa Teresa, Espirito Santo, reported the
results of a study by Luciana Dias Thomaz of the Universidade Estadual
Paulista (UNESP) that found 476 tree species in a one hectare (2.5
acre) plot in Santa Teresa. This astounding discovery breaks the
previous records of 458 found in the southern part of the state of
Bahia immediately to the north of Espirito Santo along the Brazilian
coast in March 1993 and 473 found in Cuyabeno, northeast Amazonian
Ecuador in June 1993. Prior to the Bahian study, no one had ever found
more than 400 species per hectare.
Not only did Ms. Thomaz discover this incredibly high number of
species, she also found 104 species that had never before been found
in the Atlantic forest region of Brazil, five species entirely
new to science and possibly a genus new to science as well. By
comparison, the average hectare plot of temperate forest may have
between two and 20 tree species.
The criteria used in the Espirito Santo study were more rigourous than
those used in Bahia and Cuyabeno. In the Bahia and Cuyabeno study, the
cutoff criterion for inclusion in the count was 5 centimeters diameter
breast height, a standard measure used in botanical studies. In the
Espirito Santo study, the criterion was 20 centimeter circumference at
breast height, or 6.4 centimeter diameter breast height.
The Espirito Santo site is located in the municipality of Santa Teresa
at an altitude of 600-800 meters, compared to 100-200 meters at the
Bahian site and 260 meters at the Cuyabeno site. The site is within
the Atlantic forest region of eastern Brazil, one of the world's top
threatened hotspots for terrestrial biodiversity. The Atlantic forest
once occupied about 1.2 million square kilometers, or an area about
three times the size of the state of California, but is now down to 2-
5% of its original extent. Estimates of total plant diversity for the
Atlantic forest as a whole run as high as 20,000 species, half of
which are endemic to Brazil. The area is also rich in fauna as well,
with 261 species of mammals, 620 species of birds, and 260 amphibians,
of which 73 mammals, 160 birds and 128 amphibians are endemic.
The Espirito Santo findings were announced at a meeting in Porto
Seguro, Bahia, where scientists are developing a plan for major
corridors between protected areas in the Atlantic forest. This
innovative program is funded by the Pilot Program of the G7,
currently being designed by scientists from Conservation
International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Brazilian
Institute of the Environment (IBAMA), in collaboration with many local
partners.
Dr. Russell Mittermeier, President of Conservation International,
which has a large program in Brazil, said that this finding once again
shows how incredible the biodiversity of a megadiversity country like
Brazil actually is, and how little we still know about its diversity.
Fortunately, Brazil has become one the world's leaders in biodiversity
research and conservation at both the governmental and non-
governmental levels.
Dr. Sergio Lucena Mendes, who supervised the plant diversity project,
said that this discovery stimulated his institution to develop a more
detailed action plan for biodiversity inventory of other groups in
addition to plants. An excellent example of one of the most active
scientifically-based conservation NGO's in Brazil, the Museu de
Biologia Professosr Mello Leitao gives much reason for optimism for
the future of biodiversity conservation in
Brazil.