Consequences of swamp forest fragmentation on assemblages of vascular epiphytes and climbing plants: Evaluation of the metacommunity structure.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

Habitat reduction in fragmented landscapes provides an opportunity to study the biogeographic patterns that drive changes in diversity in poorly studied metacommunities. In this study, colonization-extinction dynamics were indirectly evaluated through the analysis of the species-area relationship and the nestedness of vascular epiphytes and climbing plants in 30 swamp forest fragments.

Location

Coast of the Araucanía Region in Chile.

Taxon

Vascular epiphytes (16 species, mainly Pteridophytes) and climbing plants (15 species).

Methods

We used the database in Pincheira-Ulbrich et al. (New Zealand Journal of Botany, 54, 2016, 458), where 904 trees were sampled and a total abundance of 41,097 fern fronds and 3,098 climbing stems were reported. For the sp

SUBMITTER: Pincheira-Ulbrich J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6303743 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature