Biomass, diversity and composition of epiphytic macrolichens in primary and secondary forests in the subtropical Ailao Mountains, SW China

Species richness and vertical stratification of epiphytic lichens in subtropical primary and secondary forests in southwest China

“…The mean annual precipitation is 1 947 mm, with 85 % falling in the rainy season from May to Oct.. The annual mean temperature is 11.3 C, and the mean relative humidity is 85 % (Li et al, 2011). Details of the meteorology and forest structure can be found in Li et al (2013a,b) and Ma et al (2009).…”

“…The results agree with our earlier studies on the horizontal distribution of lichens in this area (Li et al, 2013a,b), which may be the result of a combination of habitat variables. The lowest lichen richness of the PMDF may be due in part to its higher elevation, while epiphytic lichens of secondary forests benefit from landscape characteristics such as extensive primary forests, small secondary forest fragments and high forest connectivity (Li et al, 2011(Li et al, , 2013a.…”

“…Variations in the characteristics of host species are likely to affect the distribution of epiphytic lichens (Sillett and Antoine, 2004). The dominant trees L. hancei, P. bonatii and T. gymnanthera supported an abundant lichen flora, indicating that these tree species make an important contribution to the lichen flora in subtropical forests (Li et al, 2011(Li et al, , 2013a. In contrast, the low number of lichen species found in the PDMF may reflect the small contribution of the dominant trees L. crassifolius and R. irroratum to the lichen flora (Li et al, 2013b).…”

“…Now, epiphytic lichens are receiving increasing attention in some subtropical forests, but the available data are still too limited in this field. While epiphytic lichens have been studied among the primary and secondary forests of the Ailao Mountains, a major feature of southwestern China (Li et al, 2007(Li et al, , 2011(Li et al, , 2013a, very little is known about their vertical stratification. In the Ailao Mountains, trees are frequently blown down during the wet-dry transition period.…”

Advances in ecological studies of epiphytes using canopy cranes

“…类群 (Hopkin, 2005)。长期以来, 因缺乏有效的技术 手段调查林冠层, 大部分林冠研究局限于森林地面 0-2 m范围内 )。毫无疑 问, 这个有限的研究高度会导致不全面的结论。林 冠被视为"最后的生物前沿" (the last biological frontier)、"地球的第八大洲", 是生物圈中物种丰富却最 鲜为人知的生境之一 (Stork, 2007b)。人类对深海和 外太空的探索均早于对林冠的研究, 林冠生物多样 性格局和生态过程仍被视为"科学黑箱" (Parker et al, 1992; (Nadkarni, 1993;Nadkarni et al, 1996) Song et al, 2015b), 使其健康状况恶化 (Song et al, 2012b), 降低其生物多样性 (Song et al, 2015a); 森林受损后, 林内附生植物比陆生植物更难恢复 。对附生地衣而言, 原生林和斑块 状次生林的镶嵌分布可提高附生地衣的多样性 (Li et al, 2011(Li et al, , 2013b; 树干附生地衣可作为环境变化 的指示者 (Li et al, 2013a …”