The biodiversity of tropical forests shows that there are many different models

Danh Phuong

Tropical forests are the world's treasure houses of biodiversity, but not all tropical forests are the same.

Biodiversity may be more evenly distributed than others in some forests, so different conservation and management strategies are needed. It was one of the conclusions of the study in the lowland tropical forest in New Guinea with a large scale of the Smithsonia Research Institute, published in the August 9 issue of Nature.

Previous research has largely focused on ' hot spots ' of diversity, such as highland forests in the low hills at the foot of the Andes, where slopes fall in altitude and temperature. , rainfall and other environmental factors increase diversity by creating different habitats within short distances. The change in regional morphological structure between such places is called beta diversity.

Most of the world's remaining rainforests are lowland forests in New Guinea, Borneo, Congo and the Amazon Gulf. Many researchers have argued that such lowland vermicelli forests also have high beta diversity, but this has not been thoroughly tested. The insignificant data on the morphological distribution in these giant forests, especially for insects, makes a great contribution to the world's biodiversity.

A boy holding a big caterpillar perched on a branch.(Photo: Smithsonian provided)

An international group of botanists and entomologists, including researchers from Smithsonia Research Institute, have collected data to produce 500 species of caterpillars, beetles, and fruit flies in the area. The quiet lowland forest of the bay of Sepik and Ramu rivers in the Papu Aboriginal area of ​​New Guinea. The team collected insects and plants from eight research sites across the 75,000-square-kilometer contiguous forest - an area the size of South Carolina - and noted the changing nature of the Species among different places.

The data show that low beta diversity across the study area for all three groups of insects and plants, shows that these species tend to spread and that biologic communities change very little even on intervals. very wide way. The widespread distribution of insects is surprising, based on the sedentary lifestyles of many species.

Scientist Scott Miller, author of Nature newspaper, said: 'Some species live their lives on a single plant, but have wings. Maybe they don't want to fly, but if they need to fly, they can fly. ' Insects have also shown limited specialization on the plants they live on, contrary to the general assumption that tropical species tend to be highly specialized.

As a study of insects, the study sites separated by a maximum of 500km accounted for more than half of the insect species. For fruit flies, although the distance is up to 950km, the nature of this species remains almost unchanged. In contrast, highland tropical forest locations at different heights may account for less than one-fifth of the species, even if the species they live on will also remain unchanged.

The international research team working in New Guinea includes: Scott Miller and Karolyn Darrow from Smithsonia National Museum of Natural History and Yves Basset from the Tropical Research Institute in Panama, along with were present by research collaborators at the National Museum of Natural History Vojtech Novotny (Czech Academy of Sciences) and George Weiblen (University of Minnesota).

The low beta diversity observed by this study has implications for biological conservation. The homogeneity of lowland forests shows one thing that all species diversity in tropical forests is generally lower than what we previously thought.

The results of the study help orient the conservation strategy of tropical forests. 'There are some philosophical issues that care about our data is helpful.' Miller said.

Strategies to preserve low and high beta diversity forests may not be the same. He said: 'The data we get from the New Guinea lowland forest shows that the bigger the forest, the better. In a relatively homogeneous environment, you will not lose much of the diversity of beta that should be considered typical for smaller places. But the opposite can be effective for altitude or weather trends. '

There is still much to learn because collecting high-intensity data is a time-consuming process. Miller said: ' By all means we have not solved the conservation management problem .' He noted that this type of research needs to be recreated on a large scale at the bay. The Amazon and the Congo Bay to see if the model of low beta diversity can be retained.

Researchers have collected a lot of data for more than 3 years and have believed in data from the past decade of research in New Guinea. The key to the success of the project is local researchers. Miller said: 'We have a Papu team of scientists in New Guinea and a team of biodiversity experts working with us who are basically working on the ground all the time. and really good biologists. '

These biodiversity researchers are researchers recruited in the region, and are specially trained to collect and identify species of specific domains.