Tree species of the Araucaria Mixed Forest: which, how many and how threatened are they?

Although the Araucaria Mixed Forest has long been recognized for their woods and ecosystem services, we still lack basic information on what tree species occur there. Habitat loss and overexploitation have led several tree species of this forest into an extinction process. Therefore, it is urgent to compile what are the tree species of this forest type, identify if these species are threatened and which were not assessed for their threat category. We aimed to answer: (1) How many tree species occur in the Araucaria Mixed Forest? 2) How many of these species are under a threat category? (3) Does the number of threatened species per state/province mirror the species richness of the state/province through the Araucaria Mixed Forest distribution? We found 1,213 tree species for the forest type. The states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro presented the highest species richness. The number of assessed species reflected the total number of species per state/province. Of the species listed, 5.3 % were classified as threatened and 72.8 % have not been assessed. We provided the most comprehensive tree species list to date for the Araucaria Mixed Forest and unveiled the conservation status of its tree flora.

Automated summary

This study examined the tree species present in the Araucaria Mixed Forest and assessed their conservation status. The results showed that there are 1,213 tree species in this forest type, with 5.3% classified as threatened and 72.8% not yet assessed.