Biodiversity

The diversity of plant species in the Amazon is the highest on the planet. The Amazonian forest is home to one out of ten known species, which makes it the largest living collection of plants and animals in the world. The Amazon has the highest diversity of birds, freshwater fish and butterflies. More than 2.5 million species of insect live here (the estimates vary, but generally even a higher number is assumed). A classic example of large biodiversity is Peruvian Amazon, where more species of ants were found on a single tree than there are on all British islands . In the last three years, a new species of tapir (Tapirus kabomani) and monkey (Callicebus miltoni) was described.

CAO-3DChem-ASL-Peru-DSM-PCA-49

Figure 1. Species mosaic of the lower Amazonian forest, according to the chemical composition gained by the Airborne Taxonomic Mapping System. Similar colours indicate the presence of “chemically similar” species. These “chemical signatures” reveal the composition of tropical forests. Source with the kind permission of cao.carnegiescience.edu

 


Table 1 Minimum number of scientifically classified and in the last years discovered species. Does not include the vast number of insects and other invertebrate species, nor already discovered species that are still waiting to be scientifically approved.

  Minimum number of scientifically classified species until 2005 New species
1999 to 2009
(10 years)
New species
2010 to 2013
(3 years)
Plants

40 000

637

258

Fish

3 000

257

84

Amphibians

428

216

58

Reptiles

378

55

22

Birds

1 300

16

18

Mammals

427

39

1

In total

45 533

1 200

441

       

Plant and animal communities in the Amazonian forest are neither homogenous nor randomly distributed. The great Amazonian rivers, the mountain range of the Andes etc. cause a mosaic-like structure of the landscape and in many cases create unique environments that are often the only habitat of a species. This species is then endemic to this area. There is no n

eed to emphasize the significance of these habitats to the overall biodiversity on the planet. Birds, mammals, frogs, butterflies and other taxa have similar distribution borders, i.e. “islands” of endemism that are divided by large rivers (figure 1) .

Fig 1

Figure 2. Eight big areas of endemism  .

References
1.
CAO. CAO Maps - Amazon as Kaleidoscope of Species, Carnegie Airborne Observatory. (2015).
1.
Cozzuol, M. A., Clozato, C. L. & Holanda, E. C. A new species of tapir from the Amazon. Journal of Mammalogy 94, 1331–1345 (2013).
1.
Da Silva, J., Cardoso, M., Rylands, A. B. & Fonseca, D. The fate of the Amazonian areas of endemism. Conservation Biology 19, 689–694 (2005).
1.
Hrbek, T., da Silva, V. M. F., Dutra, N. & Gravena, W. A New Species of River Dolphin from Brazil or: How Little Do We Know Our Biodiversity. PLOS ONE 9, e83623 (2014).
1.
López‐Osorio, F. & Miranda‐Esquive, D. R. A phylogenetic approach to conserving Amazonian biodiversity. Conservation Biology 24, 1359–1366 (2010).
1.
Thompson, C. Amazon Alive: A Decade of Discovery 1999-2009. (WWF Living Amazon Initiative, 2010).
1.
Wilson, E. O. The arboreal ant fauna of Peruvian Amazon forests: a first assessment. Biotropica 19, 245–251 (1987).
1.
WWF. Amazon New Species List 2010-2013, available online at www.worldwildlife.org/publications/amazon-new-species-list-2010-2013. (World Wildlife Fund-UK, 2013).
Recommended reading

Junk, W.J., Piedade, M.T.F., Wittmann, F., Schöngart, J., Parolin, P., 2010. Amazonian Floodplain Forests: Ecophysiology, Biodiversity and Sustainable Management. Ecological Studies 210. Springer Netherlands.

Wilson, E.O., 1994, The Diversity Of Life, 406pp., Penguin Science, USA.

Laird, S.A. (Ed.), 2002. Biodiversity and traditional knowledge: equitable partnerships in practice, People and Plants Conservation Manuals. Earthscan, London, UK.


Authors of the text: Ludvík Bortl, Jiří Lipenský, Marie Kalousová, Lukáš Huml, Alexandr Rollo a Hana Vebrová
Authors of the pictures: Jiří Lipenský (JL), Ludvík Bortl (LB), Lukáš Huml (LH), Hana Vebrová (HV)


Ecology || Flora

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