Seven new fern species have been described by researchers. The species diversity in tropical forests is so poorly known that field trips and herbarium work continue to discover previously unknown species.
The University of Turku has a long history of discovering new species. Six of the genera Danaea and one of the genera Dennstaedtia have been described.
There are no small or unnoticeable creatures described. Some of them are very common and range from 20 cm to 2 m tall.
One of the Danaea species that was described by the researchers attracted Professor Tuomisto's attention in 1998 by forming dense stands that stretched for kilometers on end in a poorly known area of the Amazon.
The new species seems to be doing well due to the fact that there are few people in the area. Tuomisto says that one of the new species is already at risk of extinction due to the advancement of rainforest destruction in the country.
A field trip to a new area can uncover new species.
The diversity of tropical rainforests is not well known. Every field trip to a new area has a high chance of discovering something new.
Understanding how to identify the different species and where they grow is crucial for ecological and other research. The survival of species depends on the preservation of their natural habitats. Tuomisto says it's important to protect areas that have special habitats.
When researchers collect plant specimen and store them in herbaria, they assume they are representing one of the already known species. There are new species hidden in plain sight in the existing collections.
Most of the Danaea specimen we used to describe were collected a long time ago. The specimen have been put in different places. Keskiniva says, "Now we could combine all that accumulated information from the herbaria with fresh insights from field studies."
The new Dennstaedtia species was described by a fern specimen collected fifteen years ago.
I took pictures in the forest to make a field guide of ferns. I was headed back to the camp when I saw a new plant. Zuquim recalls that he made an extra effort to collect it.
She described the species as new to science with the researchers from Brazil who are sorting out the species limits.
Zuquim says that the place where he collected the species has very different soils than most of the central forest.
Different soil conditions in Amazonia affect how species establish and evolve.
The goal has been to understand more about the rainforest. Factors that determine which species grow where and why are some of the things we are interested in. It is impossible to communicate about ecology and evolution if the species we are studying have no names.
Amazonia is the largest tropical forest area in the world and contains a lot of different plants and animals. It regulates both global and regional weather. It's important for the well-being of the planet to conserve the rainforest.
The scientific descriptions of the Danaea species have been published.
There is an official scientific description of the Dennstaedtia species in the journal.
More information: Janina Sofia Keskiniva et al, Six new species of Danaea (Marattiaceae) and the synonymisation of Danaea quebradensis, Kew Bulletin (2022). DOI: 10.1007/s12225-022-10011-wNelson Tlio Lage PENA and his colleagues wrote about a new spiny fern from central and western Amazonia.
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