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NeoTropTree, or NTT, is an interactive database originally created on Access environment and containing tree species checklist prepared for sites distributed across the Neotropical Biogeographic Region. NTT was compiled along 25 years (1992-2017) of work by Ary Oliveira-Filho, a former professor at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), with the purpose of providing data for a number of research projects, most of which focused on floristic patterns and their relationship with environmental and spatial variables. Quite unexpectedly, NTT also ended up supporting studies of rather distinct nature, such as historical biogeography, phylogenetic diversity, niche conservatism and community ecological traits.
Unlike many biogeographic databases used nowadays, NTT is NOT a compilation of georeferenced species occurrence records. It contains, instead, species checklists prepared for sites. Each site and its respective checklist are tied together so that it may be referred to as either a site or a checklist; and, alternatively, as a site/checklist. For the sake of simplicity, 'site' is adopted hereafter. A site is a circular area with a radius of 5 km centred at the geographic coordinates of the first source of information used to create it. The checklist was then compiled from information on species occurrence obtained from published surveys and taxonomic monographs as well as herbarium specimens. The example below shows a single site (Viçosa, floresta semidecídua) with high density of published surveys (six) though it also included species absent in the publications but known to be present in the area due to herbarium specimens.
A site, however, is not only defined by the circular area. Checklists are often compiled for specific vegetation types, so that there may be overlapping sites, particular in regions with high environmental heterogeneity where rather distinct vegetation types co-occur, arranged in mosaics or altitudinal belts. On the other hand, this also means that new circular areas of sites with the same vegetation type could only be established with their central coordinates at more than 10 km away from already existing ones. The example below ilustrates both the overlapping of sites with different vegetation types and the spreading of sites with the same vegetation type.
As the vegetation type was a crucial concept to define the sites, it was necessary to use a system of nomenclature and classification for the Neotropical vegetation. The difficulty of finding a system suitable for the whole geographic range and able to meet the needs of the various projects supported by NTT, led to the creation of a system of hierarchical classification based on both ecological and physiognomic aspects, which was proposed by Oliveira-Filho (2015) in the book chapter available for download from the link below:
 

OLIVEIRA-FILHO, A.T. 2015. Um Sistema de classificação fisionômico-ecológica da vegetação Neotropical. In: EISENLOHR, FELFILI, J.M.; P.V.; MELO, M.M.R.F.; ANDRADE, L.A. & MEIRA-NETO, J.A.A. (Eds.). Fitossociologia no Brasil: Métodos e estudos de casos, vol.2, Editora UFV, Viçosa, cap. 19, pp. 452-473.

A Google Earth file with location of all sites is also available for download here.