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Image Source: CIAT via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0
The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest on the planet, covering 2.1 million square miles across nine South American countries. It is one of Earth's most biodiverse regions, home to over 400 newly discovered animal and plant species since 2010. So, how many trees form this enormous ecosystem?
A study conducted by numerous biologists and conservationists, employing statistical models, estimates that the Amazon contains around 390 billion trees and boasts 16,000 different tree species.
Fauset et al., Nature Communications
These trees are crucial to the global ecosystem. The Amazon stores up to 17 percent of the world’s land-based carbon. Yet, only a small percentage of the 16,000 tree species play a disproportionate role in carbon storage. A recent study in the journal Nature Communications found that just 1 percent of Amazonian tree species account for 50 percent of the carbon stored in the forest.
The ability of trees to absorb carbon from the atmosphere makes them a critical defense against climate change. This is why China has begun planting a “Green Great Wall” of trees. Since 2008, China has planted 32 million acres of new forests, compensating for the carbon storage lost to deforestation in places like the Amazon, where deforestation rates are rising again. It seems that even with 390 billion trees, it’s still not enough.
