The basis for obligate epiphytism in Tillandsia brachycaulos (Bromeliaceae) in a Mexican tropical dry forest

Mondragón, Demetria; Calvo-Irabién, Luz María; Benzing, David H.

doi:10.1017/s0266467403001007

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Large plants certainly have lower mortality and take less time to reproduce, but this has to be weighed against the effort, time, and space needed to produce larger plants. Our plants were 12-17 mo when transplanted, larger than field-germinated seedlings, which at this age rarely exceed 1 cm (Mondragón et al 2004, Winkler et al 2007, and had mortality rates similar to field-germinated plants of the same size, thus caring for plants much longer may not be necessary. If transplantation to re-establish a species or support a dwindling population of epiphytes is attempted, our study suggests that it is important to choose a habitat of suitable substrate and microclimate, and consider unexpected high mortality from herbivores, which may or may not be limited to certain canopy zones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Survival and Growth of Juvenile Bromeliads in Coffee Plantations and Forests in Central Veracruz, Mexico

Scheffknecht¹,

Winkler²,

Mata-Rosas

et al. 2011

Biotropica

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Shade coffee plantations can be important refuges for epiphytes, but are not suitable for all species. To test if the performance of early life stages, often the most sensitive phase, is responsible for the species’ ability to colonize coffee plantations, we compared growth and mortality rates of three epiphytic bromeliad species that differ in their ability to colonize secondary arboreal vegetation by transplanting juveniles to trees in forests, and shade trees in old and young coffee plantations in Central Veracruz, Mexico. Growth rates of Tillandsia viridiflora, generally restricted to forests, and Tillandsia juncea, an early colonizer, were related to the pattern of the species occurrence among habitats with growth rates of T. viridiflora being generally higher in forests and growth of T. juncea higher in coffee plantations. Performance of the third species, Tillandsia heterophylla, which is intermediate in habitat preference, was not clearly related to habitat. No difference in growth rates was found between plants transplanted in wet or dry season. In general, mortality in transplanted bromeliads was relatively low (mostly < 5% per month). In coffee plantations herbivory had a severe effect during part of the wet season, when mortality in young coffee plantations reached between 15 and 24 percent per month. Given the substantial contribution of herbivory to the mortality of juvenile plants and the significant differences between habitats, herbivory may be co‐limiting the colonization of young coffee plantations by some epiphytic bromeliads.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Our plants were 12–17 mo when transplanted, larger than field‐germinated seedlings, which at this age rarely exceed 1 cm (Mondragón et al . , Winkler et al . ), and had mortality rates similar to field‐germinated plants of the same size, thus caring for plants much longer may not be necessary.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival and Growth of Juvenile Bromeliads in Coffee Plantations and Forests in Central Veracruz, Mexico

Scheffknecht¹,

Winkler²,

Mata-Rosas

et al. 2011

Biotropica

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“… *References: a, Mondragón et al 2004a ; b, Valverde & Bernal 2010 ; c, Winkler et al 2007 ; d, Martínez‐García 2006 ; e, Zotz 2005 ; f, Zotz et al 2005 . …”

Section: Discussionunclassified

“…Bromeliads fall as a result of numerous factors, including branch breaks, peeling bark, animal movement, improper binding of roots to the substrate, tree falls, and wind (Strong 1977; Matelson et al1993). In fact, falling is one of the principal causes of bromeliad mortality (e.g., Hietz 1997; Mondragón et al 2004 a ; Zotz et al 2005). Currently, fallen bromeliads are not collected, but our results suggest their harvest can potentially provide a sustainable alternative to wild harvest.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Demographic Effects of Harvesting Epiphytic Bromeliads and an Alternative Approach to Collection

Mondragón¹,

Ticktin²

2011

Conservation Biology

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Hundreds of epiphytic bromeliads species are harvested from the wild for trade and for cultural uses, but little is known about the effects of this harvest. We assessed the potential demographic effects of harvesting from the wild on 2 epiphytic bromeliads: Tillandsia macdougallii, an atmospheric bromeliad (adsorbs water and nutrients directly from the atmosphere), and T. violaceae, a tank bromeliad (accumulates water and organic material between its leaves). We also examined an alternative to harvesting bromeliads from trees--the collection of fallen bromeliads from the forest floor. We censused populations of T. macdougallii each year from 2005 to 2010 and of T. violaceae from 2005 to 2008, in Oaxaca, Mexico. We also measured monthly fall rates of bromeliads over 1 year and monitored the survival of fallen bromeliads on the forest floor. The tank bromeliad had significantly higher rates of survival, reproduction, and stochastic population growth rates (λ(s) ) than the atmospheric bromeliad, but λ(s) for both species were <1, which suggests that the populations will decline even without harvest. Elasticity patterns differed between species, but in both, survival of large individuals had high elasticity values. No fallen bromeliads survived more than 1.5 years on the forest floor and the rate of bromeliad fall was comparable to current harvest rates. Low rates of population growth recorded for the species we studied and other epiphytic bromeliads and high elasticity values for the vital rates that were most affected by harvest suggest that commercial harvesting in the wild of these species is not sustainable. We propose the collection of fallen bromeliads as an ecologically and, potentially, economically viable alternative.

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Host genus and rainfall drive the population dynamics of a vascular epiphyte

2016

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Abstract. Vascular epiphytes constitute up to 25% of tropical plant diversity and play an important role in providing food, water, and shelter to many organisms. However, the factors that drive their population dynamics, including the influence of their host plants (phorophytes) and of climatic factors, are still poorly understood. We provide the first test of whether host tree genus can affect population dynamics of an epiphytic species, and assess the interactive effects of host tree and rainfall. We carried out a five-year study of the demography of >1000 plants of the endemic bromeliad, Tillandsia macdougallii L. B. Sm, growing on pine and oak trees in a Mexican montane forest. We tested for differences in vital rates and used integral projection models to test whether these scaled up to differences in long-term population growth rates between the two host genera and as a function of rainfall. T. macdougallii survival and growth were higher on pines than on oaks for larger plants but not for seedlings. The probability of producing capsules was higher for T. macdougallii on oaks than on pines. Increasing dry season rainfall was significantly correlated with increased survival of individuals, but not of ramets, growing on both oaks and pines. The probability of clonal reproduction increased significantly with increasing dry season rainfall for T. macdougallii growing on oaks, but not on pines. Projected long-term population growth rates, λ, for T. macdougallii on pines were higher than on oaks. Lambda increased steeply as a function of dry season rainfall for T. macdougallii populations on both host tree genera, but the increase was steeper for populations on oaks, likely because the former are deciduous. Our results show that host tree genus can affect the long-term dynamics of epiphyte populations and suggest that these effects may depend on rainfall. The high sensitivity of this species to changes in dry season rainfall suggests that a better understanding of how rainfall may drive vascular epiphyte populations will be critical for understanding the effects of climate change on species persistence.

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The basis for obligate epiphytism in Tillandsia brachycaulos (Bromeliaceae) in a Mexican tropical dry forest

Cited by 12 publications

References 5 publications

Survival and Growth of Juvenile Bromeliads in Coffee Plantations and Forests in Central Veracruz, Mexico

Survival and Growth of Juvenile Bromeliads in Coffee Plantations and Forests in Central Veracruz, Mexico

Demographic Effects of Harvesting Epiphytic Bromeliads and an Alternative Approach to Collection

Host genus and rainfall drive the population dynamics of a vascular epiphyte

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