Is the resilience of epiphyte assemblage to human disturbance a function of local climate?

Abstract

Field studies have shown a wide array of responses of vascular epiphyte diversity to human disturbance-assemblages of disturbed habitats range from largely unchanged to severely impoverished when compared with intact forest. This variability is not well understood. We explored the hypothesis that the relative impoverishment of disturbed-habitat epiphyte assemblages is a function of local climate, by analyzing the available literature on epiphyte diversity on isolated trees as a model system. We found that assemblages of moist and moderately seasonal areas experience considerably stronger impoverishment than those of aseasonally wet or distinctly dry areas. We argue that the integrity of the vertical microclimatic gradient is more crucial for the maintenance of epiphyte diversity in moderately seasonal forests than in distinctly dry or aseasonally wet forests.