Format: ORAL

Karina Banda-R1, 2, 3, 4, Renato A. Ferreira de Lima5, 6, Guilhierme Grittz5,6, Cecilia Blundo7, 8, Luis Cayuela9, Graldine Derroire10, 11, Kyle Dexter4, 12, 13, Moabe Fernandes14, Claire Fortunel 15, Natalia Norden 16,17,, Susana Rodriguez17, Carolina Castellanos 17, Roy Gonzlez-M.4, 6, 29, Tamara Heartsill-Scalley18, 19, Filipe M. Frana20, Toby Pennington4, 12, 14, Oliver Phillips21, 22, Ricardo Segovia23, Hans ter Steege24, 25, Jrme Chave 11,26, Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert21,27 , Cristina Lpez-Gallego 28

1 FRB-CESAB: Centre de Synthèse et d'Analyse sur la Biodiversité, Montpellier, France 2 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany 3 Fundación Ecosistemas Secos de Colombia (ESC), Pradomar, Puerto Colombia, Colombia 4 DRYFLOR-Red Florística Latinoamericana del Bosque Tropical Estacionalmente Seco 5 Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, ESALQ, University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba, Brasil 6 TreeCo- Neotropical Tree Communities database 7 Instituto de Ecología Regional, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina 8 RBA-Red Bosques Andinos 9 BIOTREE.NET-Tree Biodiversity Network 10 Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) 11 Guyafor network 12 Tropical Diversity Section, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. 13 School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. 14 Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. 15 AMAP (Botanique et Modélisation de l’Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations), Université de Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France 16 Red BST-Col- Red Bosque Seco Tropical Colombia 17 Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Bogotá, Colombia 18 International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico 19 Caribbean Foresters 20 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. 21 ForestPlots.net-Rainfor 22 School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. 23 Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Concepción, Chile 24 ATDN- Amazon Tree Diversity Network 25 Naturalis Biodiversity Center/Free University Amsterdam, Leiden, Netherland 26 Laboratoire Évolution & Diversité Biologique, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse, France 27 Department of Geography, School Geography, Earth and Environmental, Birmingham, UK. 28 Instituto de Biologia Universidad de Antioquia Medellin, Colombia 29 Universidad del Tolima, Ibagué, Colombia

Tropical America has greater biodiversity than any other region of the world, but its biomes are under severe threat from climate and severe land use changes. Over recent years, plot inventory networks have successfully generated syntheses on biodiversity, ecology and ecosystem function. SynTreeSys, a new integrative initiative supported by CESAB (Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity in France)is gathering knowledge of tree biodiversity across all biomes and gradients of rainfall and climate in Latin America, in order to dissect the patterns of tree diversity, abundance and threats. These inventory plot data offer much to assess species conservation status. Such conservation assessments can be made using herbarium specimen records, but these records have sampling biases and, critically, give no information about species population size and trends. The lack of such basic information prevents us from defining where conservation actions could be strategically implemented to best preserve tree diversity in the region, and to generate future scenarios based on known macroeconomic, climatic and land-use drivers. Here, we will present examples from different biomes and regions that examine species geographic ranges (IUCN criterion B), and population sizes and potential declines (criteria A, B and D), following the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) framework. We will show how inventory plot data can be used to estimate tree species population size as has been previously done for the Amazon and Mata Atlantica but across other biomes. Population decline can be estimated by crossing such species abundance maps with layes of vegetation cover change. We will show how abundance and population estimates can inform more accurately the conservation status of tropical tree species of all the biomes of Latin America.