Long-term dynamics of an epiphyte community – pattern and process

附生植物群落的长期动态——模式和过程

• 批准号: 504715546
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Gerhard Zotz
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Chemie und Biologie des Meeres (ICBM)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/504715546?language=en
• 关键词: Long; term; dynamics; epiphyte; community

Tropical rainforests are characterised by an extreme diversity of both species and life forms. The dynamics of these communities and the underlying mechanisms have been the subject of much research in the last decades, with a heavy bias towards trees, globally coordinated by research networks like the Center of Tropical Forest Studies. Other life forms (lianas, epiphytes, hemiepiphytes, understorey shrubs and herbs) have received much less attention with the exception of lianas that have moved into focus of researchers in the last years. In comparison, our knowledge of epiphytes is still very limited, in spite of the fact that this life form frequently trumps soil-rooted vegetation in terms of local species diversity and clearly differs from trees, since crucial structuring factors of tree communities like herbivore and pathogen pressure seem to play no or a negligible role in epiphytes. Observational evidence and the results of first modelling studies suggest that the dynamics of epiphyte communities differ fundamentally in pattern and process from soil-rooted co-occurring plants. Documenting these patterns and reaching an understanding of the underlying processes are the objectives of this study, which is only possible because of two decades of work at the site and the unique research infrastructure of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Globally, there is no other study in a tropical forest setting that even remotely covers a similar time span. The project has descriptive, experimental and modelling elements. A census of 0.9 ha of all epiphytes in an undisturbed lowland forest will allow us to follow the community dynamics over more than 20 years. A transplant experiment will investigate the interactive role of host tree species and relative vertical position in the forest for the success of early epiphyte establishment (= initial attachment, germination, growth and survival), and a modelling approach will develop the correct null model to detect host specificity in epiphyte communities with their typical, highly clumped species distributions. The transplant experiment will also be accompanied by a comprehensive analysis of functional traits. This combination of different approaches should lead to substantial progress in our understanding of the composition and long-term dynamics of vascular epiphyte communities.

热带雨林的特征是物种和生命形式的极端多样性。 在过去的几十年中，这些社区和潜在机制的动态一直是许多研究的主题，对树木的偏见很大，在全球范围内由热带森林研究中心等研究网络进行了协调。其他生命形式（Lianas，epiphytes，hemiepiphytes，地下灌木和草药）受到了较少的关注，除了Lianas在过去几年中已成为研究人员的焦点外。 相比之下，尽管这种生活形成经常以局部物种的多样性来胜过土壤根源的植被，并且与树木明显不同，因为这种生活经常胜过土壤根源的植被，因为食草动物和病原体压力（如病原体压力）似乎在上雌性中不扮演或可忽略的作用。观察性证据和首次建模研究的结果表明，附生植物的动力学在模式和过程中与土壤根系共生植物的过程有所不同。这项研究的目标是记录这些模式并了解基本过程的目标，这仅是由于该地点的二十年工作以及巴拿马史密森尼热带研究所的独特研究基础设施。在全球范围内，在热带森林环境中没有其他研究，甚至远程涵盖了类似的时间段。 该项目具有描述性，实验性和建模元素。在不受干扰的低地森林中，所有附生植物的普查为0.9公顷，将使我们能够在20多年的时间内遵循社区动态。移植实验将研究宿主树种和森林中相对垂直位置的相互作用，以成功地结构（=初始依恋，发芽，生长和生存），建模方法将开发出正确的无效模型，以检测具有典型的，高度结合的物种分布的epiphyte群落中的宿主特异性。移植实验还将伴随着功能性状的全面分析。这种不同方法的结合应在我们对血管附生植物的组成和长期动态的理解中取得重大进展。