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  1. 18th June 2012, 12:31 PM #1
    Runge
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    Default How many tree species (DBH > 10cm) are there on Earth?

    Hi Folks,

    So, how many tree species are there on Earth which are at least 10cm diameter at breast height (DBH)? Based partly on this:

    How many tree species are there in the Amazon and how many of them will go extinct?

    I'd guess 50,000-60,000. If that's true and you are serious about different woods, Brazil seems to be the place to go.
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  3. 23rd June 2012, 12:28 AM #2
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    Berlin
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    Fewer every day.
    ...I'll just make the other bits smaller.
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  4. 23rd June 2012, 09:23 AM #3
    Greg Ward
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    Default Don't underestimate trees

    Take a few moments to take stock.
    1. Trees ( and all plants as such) have no brain.
    2. Trees (and other plants) can't run away from danger, although their seeds can move around
    3. Even with no brains to assist, plants have evolved to exploit animals and insects to assist in propagation and germination
    4. They can regerminate after fire and other damage affects them, we just fall over and die
    5. Plants are around 99% of total biosphere (I think)
    6. They are very successful

    I wouldn't be worried about trees becoming extinct, we think our brains allows us to exploit the world's resources, but we have only been around a few million years, plants a lot lot longer.
    They will be around a long time after our lot with our big brains becomes extinct
    Greg
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  5. 23rd June 2012, 01:26 PM #4
    Runge
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    Default

    The intended point of the thread was simply to decide how many trees are out there. The vehicle to do that was a journal article. The idea was not to get into extinction but I can see how we started down this road.

    Incidentally, and in reference to a different thread, the US and Canada have 600 species. That is a far cry from the 12,500 in the Amazon basin. I am also told told that tropical Africa has about 6,500.
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  6. 23rd June 2012, 11:20 PM #5
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    reeves
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    over 100,000, thre big US collection has over 106,000 individual species samples of timber
    "I am brother to dragons, companion to owls"
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  7. 23rd June 2012, 11:39 PM #6
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    reeves
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    List of woods - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    "I am brother to dragons, companion to owls"
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  8. 26th June 2012, 10:49 AM #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Ward View Post

    I wouldn't be worried about trees becoming extinct, we think our brains allows us to exploit the world's resources, but we have only been around a few million years, plants a lot lot longer.
    They will be around a long time after our lot with our big brains becomes extinct
    Greg
    How many species? ... Fewer every day. I don't think anyone is worried about the Plantae as a kingdom. But I doubt anyone wants to work with just Radiata or whatever other 'cockroach' species is struggles through.
    ...I'll just make the other bits smaller.
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  9. 27th June 2012, 08:47 AM #8
    Runge
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    Quote Originally Posted by reeves View Post
    over 100,000, thre big US collection has over 106,000 individual species samples of timber
    Two things are for certain: 1) any collection has a small percentage of the total species and 2) any collection is replete with duplicates.

    Apparently, there are 298,000 plant species on Earth.

    Number of species on Earth tagged at 8.7 million : Nature News

    I'm sticking with about 60,000.
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  10. 2nd July 2012, 07:54 AM #9
    Runge
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    http://www.plosbiology.org/article/f...esentation=PDF
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