Search for: All records

The objectives of this paper are to: 1. Explain our ethical stance when doing research on soundscapes and sonic practices in Mongolia with herder communities as a Mongolian-American research team. 2. Describe our research process in concept and practice, which is based on a co-production or co-generation approach to research, highlighting the role of the team’s Nutag Researchers. 3. Discuss some cases of our co-production practice and some of the opportunities and challenges our team faces working together. 

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness.