Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time, and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space. While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes, vast areas of the tropics remain understudied. In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity, but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases. To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge, it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Clinic-pathological Aspects In The Natural Infection Of Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (brvs) In Extensive Management Of Cattle In Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil [manifestação Clínico-patológica De Infecção Natural Pelo Vírus Respiratório Sincicial Bovino (brsv) Em Bovinos De Criação Extensiva No Rio Grande Do Sul, Brasil]

The clinical aspects as well as the pathology, microbiology and serology of a natural Bovine Respiratory Syncytial (BRSV) infection of bovine in a herd of 600 beef cattle kept under extensive management in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, are described. Clinically two animals had chronic cough and severe dyspnea when forced to mild physical exercise. These two animals were euthanatized and post-morten examination was performed. The macroscopic changes were of pulmonary origin, such as disseminated alveolar emphysema, focal atelectasis and marked interlobular septal thickening. The fluorescent antibody test on lung cryostat sections was positive to BRSV for both animals, and it was negative to PI-3 virus, BVDV and BHV. The BRSV was isolated from the lung of one of the animals on MDBK, and was also identified by fluorescent antibody test. No association with Chlamydia psittaci was found by ELISA performed on lung tissues. The histopathology showed syncytial cells, chronic emphysema, peribronchiolar muscle layer hypertrophy and squamous metaplasia of bronchial and bronchiolar epithelia. The serology to detect antibodies to BRSV resulted in 79% of positives from the first specimen collection. In this group of young animals some of them had a cough. The second samples collected 6 months later were from animals of different age groups resulting in 17.3% of positives. This is the first report on clinical BRSV infection in Brazil.1727781Bryson, D.G., McNulty, M.S., Logan, E.F., Cush, P.F., Respiratory syncytial virus pneumonia in young calves. Clinical and pathologic findings (1983) Am. J. Vet. Res., 44, pp. 1648-1655Bryson, D.G., McFerran, J.B., Ball, H.L., Neill, S.D., Observations on outbreaks of respiratory disease in calves associated with parainfluenza type 3 virus and respiratory syncytial virus infection (1979) Vet Rec., 104, pp. 45-49Campalans, J.B., Arns, C.W., Isolation of Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Brazil (1995) Anais 5° Virológica 95, pp. B-34. , Ribeirão Preto, SPCarter, C.R., Cole, J.R., (1990) Diagnostic Procedures in Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology. 5th Ed., 620p. , Academic Press, New YorkDungworth, D.L., The respiratory system (1993) Pathology of Domestic Animals, 2, pp. 539-699. , Jubb K.V.F., Kennedy P.C., Palmer N. (ed.) 4th ed. Academic Press, San DiegoEb, F., Orfila, J., Rapid direct immunological procedures (1988) Proc. European Society for Chlamydia Research, pp. 223-226. , Almqvist & Wiksell International, Bolonha, ItalyGonçalves, I.P.D., Simanke, A.T., Jost, H.C., Hötzel, I., Dal Soglio, A., Moojen, V., Detection of bovine respiratory syncytial virus in calves of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (1993) Ciência Rural, 23 (3), pp. 389-390. , Santa MariaGrand, M., Baxter-Jones, C., Wilding, G.P., An enzime-linked immunosorbent assay for the serodiagnosis of turkey rhinotracheitis infection (1987) Vet. Rec., 21, pp. 279-280Inaba, Y., Tonaka, I., Omori, T., Matumoto, M., Isolation of bovine respiratory syncytial virus (1970) Japan J. Exp. Med., 40, pp. 473-474Jacobs, J.W., Edington, N., Experimental infection of calves with respiratory syncytial virus (1975) Res. Vet. Sci., 18, pp. 299-306Kimman, T.H., Terpstra, G.K., Daha, M.R., Westenbrik, F., Pathogenesis of naturally acquired bovine respiratory syncytial virus infection in calves: Evidence for the involvement of complement and mast cell mediators (1989) Am. J. Vet. Res., 50, pp. 694-700Lehmkuhl, H.D., Cutlip, R.C., Experimental respiratory syncytial virus infection in feeder-age Iambs (1979) Am. J. Vet. Res., 40, pp. 1729-1730Paccaud, M.F., Jacquier, C., A respiratory syncytial virus of bovine origin (1970) Arch. Gesamte Virusforschung, 30, pp. 327-342Pirie, H.M., Petrie, L., Pringle, C.R., Allan, E.M., Kennedy, G.J., Acute fatal pneumonia in calves due to respiratory syncytial virus (1981) Vet. Rec., 108, pp. 411-416Prophet, E.B., Mills, B., Arrington, J.B., Sobin, L.H., (1992) Laboratory Methods in Histotechnology, 278p. , Armed Forces Institut of Pathology, Washington D.CRadostits, O.M., Blood, D.C., Gay, C.C., (1994) Veterinary Medicine. 8th Ed., 1763p. , Baillère Tindall, LondonStewart, R.S., Gershwin, L.J., Role of IgE in the pathogenesis of bovine respiratory syncytial virus in sequencial infections in vaccinated and nonvaccinated calves (1989) Am. J. Vet. Res., 50, pp. 349-354Van Der Ingh, T.S.G.A.M., Verhoeff, J., Van Nieuwstadt, A.P.K.M.I., Clinical and pathological observations on spontaneous bovine respiratory syncytial infections in calves (1982) Res. Vet. Sci, 33, pp. 152-15