Human beings are about to land on Mars, but there are still thousands of species of trees on Earth that have not been discovered

With the rapid development of our science and technology, humans have landed on the moon, explored the universe, and plan to immigrate to Mars. In this context, people would take it for granted that we already have a very in-depth understanding of the earth, including the various creatures living on the earth. However, some researchers have concluded that there are still thousands of rare and undiscovered tree species on the planet. The results were recently published in the scientific journal PNAS.

This scientific knowledge about the types and diversity distribution of trees on the earth is of very important value to us humans, because they are crucial to our planet's environment - dense distribution The forests create and provide "ecosystem services" to humans. They help produce clean air and purify our water. They also act as an important buffer against extreme weather processes. They also provide food and shelter for a variety of animals, which is particularly important at this time. What's more, trees can slow down the current intensifying global warming trend by absorbing carbon dioxide through photosynthesis during their growth.

Back to the topic of this article. For this research, more than 100 scientists around the world have achieved rich research results through several years of cooperation. The research team combined several data sets to create the most extensive and data-rich forest database in the world. The Earth's Forest Database uses new statistical methods to count the total number of unique tree species at three different scales: biome, continental and global. Based on the analysis of the total number of tree species, and based on the currently known tree species data, the number of species that have not yet been discovered is estimated.

Based on this, the research team calculated that there are approximately 73,000 tree species on the earth; among them, about 9,200 tree species have not yet been discovered. Researchers estimate that nearly half of these undiscovered tree species are located in South America.

As the research results introduced above, the actual number of tree species on our planet is much higher than previously thought. So, how come we didn’t know they existed before?

According to scientists, this is because most of the (so far) undiscovered tree species are found in remote corners of the planet, and the team suspects that they mostly grow in sparsely populated (or even uninhabited) areas. in subtropical and tropical forests. Examples of these areas include parts of Central Africa, remote forests in Southeast Asia, and tropical rainforests such as the Amazon. Additionally, there may be many tree species yet to be discovered on remote, uninhabited islands.

Most undiscovered tree species are likely to be rare, with small populations and limited spatial distribution. This makes undiscovered species particularly vulnerable to human disturbances such as climate change and deforestation. Therefore, this new discovery will help improve our current forest conservation efforts.

According to Peter Reich, one of the study’s authors, the findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to changes in human activities, particularly climate and land use , the rarer the population, the higher the survival pressure and threats it faces.

Therefore, scientifically identifying these undiscovered species, protecting our forests, and saving undiscovered species from extinction are crucial to the survival of the earth and mankind.

The number of tree species on Earth (PNAS)

Why don't evergreens change color and drop their leaves every fall? (Uni-Sci)