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The Role of Vascular Epiphytes in the Ecosystem

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Plants on Plants – The Biology of Vascular Epiphytes

Part of the book series: Fascinating Life Sciences ((FLS))

Abstract

The previous chapter, which focused on the biotic interactions of epiphytes with other organisms found in tree canopies, identified an important role of epiphytes for animal abundance and diversity. This chapter is concerned with the role of epiphytes in ecosystem carbon, water, and nutrient pools and fluxes. The impact of epiphytes on ecosystem processes is expected to be largest in wet montane systems, in which they may attain up to 10,000 kg biomass ha−1. Even in these systems, however, pool size is not a good predictor of the relative contribution of epiphytes to fluxes. For one, epiphytes typically have lower capacity for net CO2 uptake than co-occurring trees and are also more affected by water shortage. Together, this should lead to a much smaller contribution to carbon fluxes than expected by total biomass. The role of vascular epiphytes in forest hydrology cannot be deduced from biomass either and is much smaller than that of co-occurring nonvascular epiphytes, particularly of mosses and liverworts. The contribution of vascular epiphytes to nutrient stores is higher than expected from their biomass, but it remains unclear how this relates to fluxes. Epiphytes do modify nutrient fluxes in the ecosystem, but the magnitude of this effect is largely unknown. The answer should depend on the chosen temporal and spatial scale. Thus, whether epiphytes generate a net gain for their host trees or, alternatively, scavenge nutrients to a degree that the trees are negatively affected is a central yet currently unresolved question.

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  1. Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Gerhard Zotz

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Zotz, G. (2016). The Role of Vascular Epiphytes in the Ecosystem. In: Plants on Plants – The Biology of Vascular Epiphytes. Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39237-0_9

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