Colonization of Tropical Rain Forest Leaves by Epiphylls: Effects of Site and Host Plant Leaf Lifetime

Bryophytes in a changing landscape: The hierarchical effects of habitat fragmentation on ecological and evolutionary processes

“…In comparison to temperate species, bryophytes of tropical regions exhibit relatively fast population dynamics (MongeNajera, 1989;Coley et al, 1993;Zartman, 2004) making them a particularly suitable group for conducting experimental population studies. With recent advancements in the Neotropical taxonomy and floristics of bryophytes (e.g., Gradstein et al, 2001;Gradstein and da Costa, 2003), the tools for identification of potential focal species in demographic studies are available for any population biologist who has acquired a working knowledge of bryophyte morphology.…”

Metapopulation Extinction Thresholds in Rain Forest Remnants

“…The leaf life span of many understory dicotyledonous plants in Neotropical forests is typically less than 18 months (Bentley 1979;Coley et al 1993), suggesting that the precocious development of gametangia to ensure rapid dissemination of spores before leaf senescence, rather than the production of vegetative biomass per se, would be more advantageous for epiphyll metapopulation persistence. In this case, the temporal instability of patch (i.e., leaf) dynamics may adequately explain why local (i.e., within-leaf) demographic parameters, such as overall growth, are not accurate indicators of metapopulation vi-ability.…”

<p><strong>The influence of leaf characteristics on epiphyllic cover: a test of hypotheses with artificial leaves</strong></p>

“…Values reported for Panama were higher (Coley et al 1993). We have no data about the environmental factors which probably are responsible for such regional differences, although humidity probably is determinant (Monge-Nájera 1989).…”

“…In some cases, the cover with foliicolous lichens increases towards (Schell and Winkler 1981). Other field evidence suggests that at least some liverworts are photophilic (Olarinmoye 1975, Monge-Nájera 1989, Coley et al 1993. In this experiment, liverworts grew better under higher light levels, perhaps because an understory may receive as little as 1-2% of the light reaching the canopy (A. and R. Lücking, pers.…”

“…Currently there are no appropriate data to test that generalization on epiphyll communities, but there is much qualitative evidence suggesting that a higher proportion of available water is required by epiphyllous liverworts than by epiphyllous lichens (Olarinmoye 1975, Richards 1984, Coley et al 1993. In contrast, heavy direct rain appears to prevent development of all epiphylls (Olarinmoye 1975), but all previous reports were unable to separate water effects from host characteristics.…”