An international group of scientists concentrated at Yale University (USA) has studied the total number of trees on Earth. To their surprise, the figures turn out to be much higher than they expected: our planet has more than three billion trees , with Canada being the country with the most trees (318,180,524,032).
To get to know these figures, which translate into 422 trees per person , the researchers have had to resort to estimating the total number , since the satellites used can only observe them from a great height. According to the report, published in the journal Nature , satellite images reveal that there are approximately 400,000 million. “Thus, we combined these data with information obtained from field measurements of almost 430,000 forests in more than 50 countries,” says Thomas Crowther, lead author of the study.
They then matched the tree count with satellite images of the same forest areas, thus being able to plot similar types of forests for every square kilometer of the rest of the Earth’s surface.
But is this really good news? According to experts, this is not something to brag about, considering that forests are shrinking at a dizzying rate, losing some 15 billion specimens each year. Given the results of the investigation, experts have warned that in 2415 all the trees in the world would eventually disappear.
And in Spain?
The Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) has also wanted to find out the number of trees that fill the Spanish territory with life. To do this, it has carried out an analysis of the Spanish registries. According to data from the third forest inventory (IFN3) there are a total of 6,971,283,041 trees, which would be equivalent to 245 specimens per person. It must be taken into account that young people who do not reach 75 mm in normal diameter have not been considered in the count.
The autonomous community that contains the most trees is Castilla y León, followed by Catalonia. The reason, according to Jordi Vayreda, CREAF researcher, is that “Catalonia, in addition to being a territory with a large forest area, has many trees per hectare”. In fact, this region is one of those with the highest density of trees, specifically 637, along with La Rioja and Cantabria. Holm oak is the predominant species throughout the country, with 19.12 percent of the total trees.
