Responses of Epiphytic Bryophyte Communities to Simulated Climate Change in the Tropics

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511779701.011

10 - Responses of Epiphytic Bryophyte Communities to Simulated Climate Change in the Tropics

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2012

Jorge Jácome ,

S. Robbert Gradstein and

Edited by

Nancy G. Slack and

Jorge Jácome: Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
S. Robbert Gradstein: Affiliation:
University of Göttingen, Germany
Michael Kessler: Affiliation:
University of Zürich, Switzerland
Nancy G. Slack: Affiliation:
Sage Colleges, New York
Lloyd R. Stark: Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Summary

Introduction

Epiphytes are known to respond sensitively to environmental changes. Because of the tight coupling of epiphytes to atmospheric conditions, changes in the chemical and physical conditions of the atmosphere may be expected to have direct effects on epiphytes (Farmer et al. 1992; Benzing 1998; Zotz & Bader 2009). In temperate regions, non-vascular epiphytes (bryophytes, lichens) have frequently been used as bioindicators of air quality (Hawksworth & Rose 1970). Owing to the lack of a protective cuticle in many bryophytes and lichens, solutions and gases may enter freely into the living tissues of these plants causing sensitive reactions to changes in the environment. By mapping and monitoring the distribution and abundance of non-vascular epiphytes, changes in environmental conditions can be assessed (Van Dobben & De Bakker 1996; Szczepaniak & Biziuk 2003).

Tropical moist forests, especially mountain forests, are very rich in epiphytes, both vascular and non-vascular. In the Reserva Biológica San Francisco, a small mountain rain forest reserve of approximately 1000 hectares in the Andes of southern Ecuador, about 1200 species of epiphytes have been recorded, with more than half of these bryophytes and lichens (Liede-Schumann & Breckle 2008). About one of every two species of plant in the forests is an epiphyte. The almost constantly saturated air in these mountain forests, due to orographic clouds, mist, and frequent rainfall, allows the epiphytic plants to thrive year-round high up on the trees, favoring high species diversity.

Type: Chapter
Information: Bryophyte Ecology and Climate Change , pp. 191 - 208

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511779701.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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