Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T03:02:50.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The palm Syagrus coronata proliferates and structures vascular epiphyte assemblages in a human-modified landscape of the Caatinga dry forest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2020

Leila J.B. Gonçalves ,
Edgar E. Santo-Silva ,
Maria Fabíola Barros ,
Kátia F. Rito ,
Inara R. Leal  and
Marcelo Tabarelli
Leila J.B. Gonçalves
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50690-901, Recife, PE, Brazil
Edgar E. Santo-Silva*
Affiliation:
Unidade Acadêmica de Serra Talhada, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Av. Gregório Ferraz Nogueira s/n, José Tomé de Souza Ramos, 56909-535, Serra Talhada, PE, Brazil
Maria Fabíola Barros
Affiliation:
Departamento de Botânica, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Av. Gov Magalhães Barata, 376, São Brás, 66040-170, Belém, PA, Brazil
Kátia F. Rito
Affiliation:
Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, 58190, Michoacán, Mexico
Inara R. Leal
Affiliation:
Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50690-901, Recife, PE, Brazil
Marcelo Tabarelli
Affiliation:
Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50690-901, Recife, PE, Brazil
*
Author for correspondence: *Edgar E. Santo-Silva, Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The proliferation of disturbance-adapted species in human-modified landscapes may change the structure of plant communities, but the response of biodiversity to human disturbances remains poorly understood. We examine the proliferation of the palm, Syagrus coronata, in disturbed forest stands and its impacts on the structure of vascular epiphyte assemblages in a human-modified landscape of Brazilian Caatinga dry forest. First, we compared S. coronata density between old-growth and regenerating forest stands. We then surveyed vascular epiphytes on 680 phorophytes (S. coronata and non-palm/control species) across five habitat types with different disturbance levels. There was an eight-fold increase in S. coronata density in regenerating areas compared with in old-growth forest. Syagrus coronota supported richer epiphyte assemblages at local (i.e. per palm) and landscape (i.e. pooling all palms) scale than control phorophytes, supporting more than 11 times the number of species of control phorophytes at both scales. Epiphyte assemblages were more abundant, species-rich and dominated by abiotically dispersed species in forest sites with intermediate disturbance levels (regenerating forest stands). More than simply operating as an exclusive phorophyte for more than 90% of the epiphyte species we recorded here, S. coronata favours epiphyte persistence and structures their assemblages across human-modified landscapes of the Caatinga forest.

Keywords

BiodiversityBrazilian Caatingacommunity assemblyepiphytic communityhuman disturbanceseasonal tropical dry forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , May 2020 , pp. 123 - 132
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature cited

Aguiar, AV and Tabarelli, M (2010) Edge effects and seedling bank depletion: the role played by the early successional palm Attalea oleifera (Arecaceae) in the Atlantic Forest. Biotropica 42, 158–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aguirre, A, Guevara, R, García, M and López, JC (2010) Fate of epiphytes on phorophytes with different architectural characteristics along the perturbation gradient of Sabal mexicana forests in Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Vegetation Science 21, 6–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrade, WM, Ramos, MA, Souto, WMS and Bento-Silva, JS (2015) Knowledge, uses and practices of the licuri palm (Syagrus coronata (Mart.) Becc.) around protected areas in northeastern Brazil holding the endangered species Lears Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari). Tropical Conservation Science 8, 893–911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benzing, DH (1990) Vascular Epiphytes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 354 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernal, R and Balslev, H (1996) Strangulation of the palm Phytelephas seemannii by the pioneer tree Cecropia obtusifolia: the cost of efficient litter trapping. Ecotropica 30, 177–184.Google Scholar
Böhnert, T, Wenzel, A, Altenhövel, C, Beeretz, L, Tjitrosoedirdjo, SS, Meijide, A, Rembold, K and Kreft, H (2016) Effects of land-use change on vascular epiphyte diversity in Sumatra (Indonesia). Biological Conservation 202, 20–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campos, JLA, Albuquerque, UP, Peroni, N and Araújo, EL (2017) Population structure and fruit availability of the babassu palm (Attalea speciosa Mart. ex Spreng) in human dominated landscapes of the northeast region of Brazil. Acta Botanica Brasilica 31, 267–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castro, RA, Fabricante, JR and Siqueira-Filho, JA (2016) A importância da palmeira Syagrus coronata (Mart.) Beec. para a conservação da riqueza e diversidade de espécies epífitas vasculares na Caatinga. Revista Árvore 40, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chao, A, Gotelli, NJ, Hsieh, TC, Sander, EL, Ma, KH, Colwell, RK and Ellison, AM (2014) Rarefaction and extrapolation with Hill numbers: a framework for sampling and estimation in species diversity studies. Ecological Monographs 84, 45–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CITES (2019) Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. http://www.cites.org. (Accessed 9 January 2020).Google Scholar
Corrêa, CE, Fischer, E and Santos, FAM (2012) Seed banks on Attalea phalerata (Arecaceae) stems in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil. Annals of Botany 109, 729–734.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drumond, MA (2007) Licuri Syagrus coronata (Mart.) Becc. Petrolina: Embrapa Semi-Árido, 16 pp.Google Scholar
Dufrêne, M and Legendre, P (1997) Species assemblages and indicator species: the need for a flexible asymmetrical approach. Ecological Monographs 67, 345–366.Google Scholar
Einzmann, HJR and Zotz, G (2016) How diverse are epiphyte assemblages in plantations and secondary forests in tropical lowlands? Tropical Conservation Science 9, 629–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evelyn, MJ and Stiles, DA (2003) Roosting requirements of two frugivorous bats (Sturnira lilium and Arbiteus intermedius) in fragmented Neotropical forest. Biotropica 35, 405–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fayle, TM, Turner, EC, Snaddon, JL, Chey, VK., Chung, AYC, Eggleton, P and Foster, WA (2010) Oil palm expansion into rain forest greatly reduces ant biodiversity in canopy, epiphytes and leaf-litter. Basic and Applied Ecology 11, 337–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, TA, Barlow, J, Chazdon, R, Ewers, RM, Harvey, CA, Peres, CA and Sodhi, NS (2009) Prospects for tropical forest biodiversity in a human-modified world. Ecology Letters 12, 561–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griz, LMS and Machado, ICS (2001) Fruiting phenology and seed dispersal syndromes in Caatinga, a tropical dry forest in the northeast of Brazil. Journal of Tropical Ecology 17, 303–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, A, Galeano, G and Bernal, R (1995) Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hietz, P, Buchberger, G and Winkler, M (2006) Effect of forest disturbance on abundance and distribution of epiphytic bromeliads and orchids. Ecotropica 12, 103–112.Google Scholar
Johnson, D (1996) Palms: Their Conservation and Sustained Utilization. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Gland: IUCN, 116 pp.Google Scholar
Laurance, WF, Lovejoy, TE, Vasconcelos, HL, Bruna, EM, Didham, RK, Stouffer, PC, Gascon, C, Bierregaard, RO, Laurance, SG and Sampaio, E (2002) Ecosystem decay of Amazonian Forest fragments: a 22-year investigation. Conservation Biology 16, 605–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopes, AV, Girao, LC, Santos, BA, Peres, CA and Tabarelli, M (2009) Long-term erosion of tree reproductive trait diversity in edge-dominated Atlantic forest fragments. Biological Conservation 142, 1154–1165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lorenzi, H, Souza, HM, Cerqueira, LSC, Costa, JTM and Ferreira, E. (2004) Palmeiras brasileiras e exóticas cultivadas. Nova Odessa: Instituto Plantarum.Google Scholar
Magnago, LFS, Rocha, MF, Meyer, L, Martins, SV and Meira-Neto, JAA (2015) Microclimatic conditions at forest edges have significant impacts on vegetation structure in large Atlantic forest fragments. Biodiversity and Conservation 24, 2305–2318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malhi, Y, Gardner, TA, Goldsmith, GR, Silman, MR and Zelazowski, P (2014) Tropical forests in the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 39, 125–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martínez-Ramos, M, Ortiz-Rodríguez, IA, Piñero, D, Dirzo, R and Sarukhán, J (2016) Anthropogenic disturbances jeopardize biodiversity conservation within tropical rainforest reserves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 113, 5323–5328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
May, PH, Anderson, AB, Balick, MJ and Frazão, JMF (1985) Subsistence benefits from the babassu palm (Orbignya martiana). Economic Botany 39, 113–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinney, ML and Lockwood, JL (1999) Biotic homogenization: a few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14, 450–453.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mendieta-Leiva, G and Zotz, G (2015) A conceptual framework for the analysis of vascular epiphyte assemblages. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 17, 510–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, L, Newton, AC, DeFries, RS, Ravilious, C, May, I, Blyth, S, Kapos, V and Gordon, JE (2006) A global overview of the conservation status of tropical dry forests. Journal of Biogeography 33, 491–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morante-Filho, JC, Arroyo-Rodríguez, V, Pessoa, M de S, Cazetta, E and Faria, D (2018) Direct and cascading effects of landscape structure on tropical forest and non-forest frugivorous birds. Ecological Applications 28, 2024–2032.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nadkarni, NM and Haber, WA (2009) Canopy seed banks as time capsules of biodiversity in pasture-remnant tree crowns. Conservation Biology 23, 1117–1126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newbold, T, Hudson, LN, Hill, SLL, Contu, S, Lysenko, I, Senior, RA, Börger, L, Bennett, DJ, Choimes, A, Collen, B, Day, J, Palma, AD, Díaz, S, Echeverria-Londoño, S, Edgar, MJ, Feldman, A, Garon, M, Harrison, MLK, Alhusseini, T, Ingram, DJ, Itescu, Y, Kattge, J, Kemp, V, Kirkpatrick, L, Kleyer, M, Correia, DLP, Martin, CD, Meiri, S, Novosolov, M, Pan, Y, Phillips, HRP, Purves, DW, Robinson, A, Simpson, J, Tuck, SL, Weiher, E, White, HJ, Ewers, RM, Mace, GM, Scharlemann, JPW and Purvis, A (2015) Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity. Nature 520, 45–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nkongmeneck, BA, Lowman, MD and Atwood, JT (2002) Epiphyte diversity in primary and fragmented forests of Cameroon, Central Africa: a preliminary survey. Selbyana 23, 121–130.Google Scholar
Noblick, LR (2017) A revision of the genus Syagrus (Arecaceae). Phytotaxa 294, 1–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nöske, NM, Hilt, N, Werner, FA, Brehm, G, Fiedler, K, Sipman, HJM and Gradstein, SR (2008) Disturbance effects on diversity of epiphytes and moths in a montane forest in Ecuador. Basic and Applied Ecology 9, 4–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliveira, MA, Santos, AMM and Tabarelli, M (2008) Profound impoverishment of the large-tree stand in a hyper-fragmented landscape of the Atlantic forest. Forest Ecology and Management 256, 1910–1917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliveira, UR, Santo, FSE and Alvarez, IA (2015) Comunidade epifítica de Syagrus coronata (Mart.) Becc. (Arecaceae) em áreas de pastagens na Caatinga, Bahia. Revista Caatinga 28, 84–91.Google Scholar
van der Pijl, L (1982) Principles of Dispersal in Higher Plants. Berlin: Springer, 218 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pimentel, DS and Tabarelli, M (2004) Seed dispersal of the palm Attalea oleifera in a remnant of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Biotropica 36, 74–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ribeiro, EMS, Arroyo-Rodríguez, V, Santos, BA, Tabarelli, M and Leal, IR (2015) Chronic anthropogenic disturbance drives the biological impoverishment of the Brazilian Caatinga vegetation. Journal of Applied Ecology 52, 611–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ribeiro, EMS, Santos, BA, Arroyo-Rodríguez, V, Tabarelli, M, Souza, G and Leal, IR (2016) Phylogenetic impoverishment of plant communities following chronic human disturbances in the Brazilian Caatinga. Ecology 97, 1583–1592.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ribeiro-Neto, JD, Arnan, X, Tabarelli, M and Leal, IR (2016) Chronic anthropogenic disturbance causes homogenization of plant and ant communities in the Brazilian Caatinga. Biodiversity and Conservation 25, 943–956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rito, KF, Arroyo-Rodríguez, V, Queiroz, RT, Leal, IR and Tabarelli, M (2017 a) Precipitation mediates the effect of human disturbance on the Brazilian Caatinga vegetation. Journal of Ecology 105, 828–838.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rito, KF, Tabarelli, M and Leal, IR (2017 b) Euphorbiaceae responses to chronic anthropogenic disturbances in Caatinga vegetation: from species proliferation to biotic homogenization. Plant Ecology 218, 749–759.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rufino, MUL, Costa, JTM, Silva, VA and Andrade, LHC (2008) Conhecimento e uso do ouricuri (Syagrus coronata) e do babaçu (Orbignya phalerata) em Buíque, PE, Brasil. Acta Botanica Brasilica 22, 1141–1149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sampaio, E (1995) Overview of the Brazilian Caatinga. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanger, JC and Kirkpatrick, JB (2017) The distribution of vascular epiphytes over gradients of light and humidity in north-east Australian rainforest. Austral Ecology 42, 976–983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santos, BA, Tabarelli, M, Melo, FPL, Camargo, JLC, Andrade, A, Laurance, SG and Laurance, WF (2014) Phylogenetic impoverishment of Amazonian tree communities in an experimentally fragmented forest landscape. PLoS ONE 9, e113109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santo-Silva, EE, Almeida, WR, Melo, FPL, Zickel, CS and Tabarelli, M (2013) The nature of seedling assemblages in a fragmented tropical landscape: implications for forest regeneration. Biotropica 45, 386–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scariot, A (1999) Forest fragmentation effects on palm diversity in central Amazonia. Journal of Ecology 87, 66–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, FR, Begnini, RM, Lopes, BC and Castellani, TT (2011) Seed dispersal and predation in the palm Syagrus romanzoffiana on two islands with different faunal richness, southern Brazil. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 46, 163–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, JMC Da, Leal, IR and Tabarelli, M (2017) Caatinga: The Largest Tropical Dry Forest Region in South America. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 482 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siqueira-Filho, JA and Tabarelli, M (2006) Bromeliad species of the Atlantic forest of north-east Brazil: losses of critical populations of endemic species. Oryx 40, 218–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souza, AF and Martins, FR (2003) Spatial distribution of an undergrowth palm in fragments of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Plant Ecology 164, 141–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souza, DG, Sfair, JC, Paula, AS, Barros, MF, Rito, KF and Tabarelli, M (2019) Multiple drivers of aboveground biomass in a human-modified landscape of the Caatinga dry forest. Forest Ecology and Management 435, 57–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabarelli, M, Peres, CA and Melo, FPL (2012) The ‘few winners and many losers’ paradigm revisited: emerging prospects for tropical forest biodiversity. Biological Conservation 155, 136–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talley, SM, Setzer, WN and Jackes, BR (1996) Host associations of two adventitious-root-climbing vines in a north Queensland tropical rain forest. Biotropica 28, 356–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, EC and Foster, WA (2009) The impact of forest conversion to oil palm on arthropod abundance and biomass in Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Tropical Ecology 25, 23–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, GL (1994) Classification of the Euphorbiaceae. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 81, 3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werner, FA and Gradstein, SR (2009) Diversity of dry forest epiphytes along a gradient of human disturbance in the tropical Andes. Journal of Vegetation Science 20, 59–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, SJ, Zeballos, H, Domínguez, I, Gallardo, MM, Moreno, MC and Ibáñez, R (2000) Poachers alter mammal abundance, seed dispersal, and seed predation in a Neotropical forest. Conservation Biology 14, 227–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, JK and Olmsted, IC (1992) Host tree utilization by vascular epiphytes in a seasonally inundated forest (tintal) in Mexico. Biotropica 24, 402–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zotz, G and Bader, MY (2009) Epiphytic plants in a changing world-global: change effects on vascular and non-vascular epiphytes. In Lüttge, U, Beyschlag, W, Büdel, B and Francis, D (eds), Progress in Botany. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 147–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Gonçalves et al. supplementary material

Tables S1-S2

Download Gonçalves et al. supplementary material(File)
File 24.5 KB