Adaptation of a widespread epiphytic fern to simulated climate change conditions

Hsu, Rebecca C.-C.; Oostermeijer, J.G.B.; Wolf, Jan H. D.

doi:10.1007/s11258-014-0340-0

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This decline in the frequency of fog immersion of forest epiphytes is likely to increase the vulnerability of epiphytes under projected climate and land use change scenarios. Previous studies have showed decreased growth rates and increased mortality in epiphytes transplanted from high to low fog immersion conditions [66][67][68]. In this study region, the decreasing trend in the number of foggy days per year and hours of fog per day has been linked to increases in the area of monoculture rubber plantations that that act as water pumps [33,[69][70][71].…”

Section: Ecological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 76%

Fog Water Is Important in Maintaining the Water Budgets of Vascular Epiphytes in an Asian Tropical Karst Forests during the Dry Season

Song

Liu

et al. 2018

Forests

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Fog may be an important source of water for forest vascular epiphytes on trees, because they lack direct access to sources of soil water, but little is known about the water use proportions from various sources and potential water uptake pathways in epiphytes. Here, we analyzed leaf carbon isotope ratios as a measure of water use efficiency (WUE), proportions of fog, rain, and soil water use, and foliar water uptake (FWU) in species of epiphyte and their host trees in a tropical karst dwarf forest in China during the dry season. We found that the WUE, as represented by leaf δ 13 C, was generally enriched in the epiphyte species compared to their host trees. Epiphytes used substantial proportions of fog water, whereas water use in the host trees was dominated by soil water. The leaves of epiphytes and host trees absorbed water following immersion in water for 3 h and FWU possibly related to foliar epicuticular structures, such as fungal endophytes. Our results show a divergence of water use strategies between epiphytes and their hosts and highlight the importance of fog water for epiphytes during the dry season and under a climate change scenario with a reduced occurrence of fog events.

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Section: Ecological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 76%

Fog Water Is Important in Maintaining the Water Budgets of Vascular Epiphytes in an Asian Tropical Karst Forests during the Dry Season

Song

Liu

et al. 2018

Forests

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“…Not all species respond in the same way to climate change, as diverse biological and ecological capacities could result in differential vulnerability to environmental changes [ 8 , 13 , 42 ]. In our case, the two species investigated show a slightly different response to increasing temperatures: Asplenium trilobum seems to be more vulnerable in the percentage of germination and A .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The lack of research in this subject is much more aggravated in the case of epiphytes [ 21 , 38 – 40 ], and especially those that live under temperate climates, which have been hardly studied [ 41 ]. This information points out that the global change is impacting the communities of epiphytic ferns, reporting data of expected changes in composition and abundances of species [ 35 , 41 ], sometimes highlighting the importance of altitudinal gradients [ 42 ]. Nevertheless, all this work has been completed on the sporophytic phase.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Germination fitness of two temperate epiphytic ferns shifts under increasing temperatures and forest fragmentation

et al. 2018

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Ferns are an important component of ecosystems around the world. Studies of the impacts that global changes may have on ferns are scarce, yet emerging studies indicate that some species may be particularly sensitive to climate change. The lack of research in this subject is much more aggravated in the case of epiphytes, and especially those that live under temperate climates. A mathematical model was developed for two temperate epiphytic ferns in order to predict potential impacts on spore germination kinetics, in response to different scenarios of global change, coming from increasing temperature and forest fragmentation. Our results show that an increasing temperature will have a negative impact over the populations of these temperate epiphytic ferns. Under unfragmented forests the germination percentage was comparatively less influenced than in fragmented patches. This study highlight that, in the long term, populations of the studied epiphytic temperate ferns may decline due to climate change. Overall, epiphytic fern communities will suffer changes in diversity, richness and dominance. Our study draws attention to the role of ferns in epiphytic communities of temperate forests, emphasizing the importance of considering these plants in any conservation strategy, specifically forest conservation. From a methodological point of view, the model we propose could be easily used to dynamically monitor the status of ecosystems, allowing the quick prediction of possible future scenarios, which is a crucial issue in biodiversity conservation decision-making.

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“…Thus, overall, global warming in association with drier conditions might result in an upward shift of fern species ranges. Ferns have been shown to shift their distribution according to their environmental requirements and patterns of intraspecific adaptation (Hsu et al 2014a;Hsu et al 2014b). Such differences in distributional responses to climate change are likely to shape novel communities along with positive or negative novel species interactions (Williams and Jackson 2007).…”

Section: Insights Into Future Changes In Fern Species Richness and Abmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The potential impacts of climate change are increasingly being investigated using elevational gradients because they provide a useful system to understand how species and communities respond to climatic variation (Lloret and González-Mancebo 2011;Hsu et al 2014a). Despite intensive effort to understand patterns and causes of species distributions along elevational gradients during the last few centuries, no emerging consensus has been reached on a definitive pattern and underlying mechanisms (Grytnes and McCain 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fern species richness and abundance are indicators of climate change on high-elevation islands: evidence from an elevational gradient on Tahiti (French Polynesia)

et al. 2016

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Inherent characteristics of island species make them particularly susceptible to anthropogenic changes and need to be assessed to implement appropriate conservation strategies. The impacts of climate change are increasingly being investigated along elevational gradients since they provide natural laboratories to study how species respond to climatic variation. Ferns are particularly sensitive to air humidity and temperature and are therefore potentially useful as bio-indicators. This study addresses the question of whether the distributions of fern species richness and abundance have climatic correlates along an elevational gradient on the tropical volcanic island of Tahiti (French Polynesia). Analyses were conducted on two datasets: island-wide richness was estimated using published data on species elevational ranges, and local richness and abundance were addressed through a transect survey. Correlations with water availability, temperature, area availability, and a randomly-generated species richness pattern were investigated. Results showed that both diversity and abundance varied in association with climate. Rainfall was collinear with diversity in the lower half of the elevational gradient (R 2 = 0.97), while temperature was the most important climatic correlate Climatic Change for diversity in the upper half (R 2 = 0.98). The number of terrestrial fern individuals and epiphytic fern cover were both correlated with temperature (R 2 = 0.86 and 0.81, respectively). Our results imply that impacts of climate change on ferns on Tahiti might include change in diversity and abundance, and increased extinction risk due to low overlap between current and projected species distributions. Ferns represent important indicator organisms that can be used to study species distributional responses to climate change in island ecosystems.

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Adaptation of a widespread epiphytic fern to simulated climate change conditions

Cited by 13 publications

References 29 publications

Fog Water Is Important in Maintaining the Water Budgets of Vascular Epiphytes in an Asian Tropical Karst Forests during the Dry Season

Fog Water Is Important in Maintaining the Water Budgets of Vascular Epiphytes in an Asian Tropical Karst Forests during the Dry Season

Germination fitness of two temperate epiphytic ferns shifts under increasing temperatures and forest fragmentation

Fern species richness and abundance are indicators of climate change on high-elevation islands: evidence from an elevational gradient on Tahiti (French Polynesia)

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