"Discovery: 2% of Rainforest Species Account for 50% of Trees"

A new study led by University College London researchers has found that just 2% of rainforest tree species make up 50% of the trees in tropical forests across Africa, the Amazon, and south-east Asia. The international collaboration of 356 scientists uncovered similar patterns of tree diversity across the world's rainforests, with a few dominant tree species and thousands of rare species making up the rest. The findings have profound implications for understanding tropical forests and their response to environmental changes, as well as the global carbon sink they provide. The research indicates the existence of fundamental rules governing the assembly of all the world's tropical forests, and future work will focus on identifying this potential rule.