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Large diameters and tree bark physical attributes drive vascular epiphyte-phorophyte relationships in Amazonian black-water floodplain forest

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Abstract

Understanding the interactive relationships between organisms is key to understanding community structure and planning appropriate conservation measures. Even more so for plant-plant interactions, which are poorly understood. We studied the vascular epiphyte community and its interactions with the tree community (phorophytes) in Amazonian black-water floodplain forests (igapó), analyzing 58 floristic inventory plots located along a 517 km stretch of the Brazilian Negro River, in the Central Amazon. The vascular epiphytes and trees were identified and quantified, and the physical attributes of the bark were measured, as well as the diameter at breast height (DBH) of the tree species. A total of 2746 trees ≥ 10 cm DBH were inventoried, of which 969 were phorophytes (35.29%), hosting 4692 individuals of epiphytic species, belonging to 17 families 50 genera, and 106 species. Pouteria elegans was the most abundant phorophyte, however, Aldina latifolia showed proportionally higher richness and abundance of epiphytes. Codonanthopsis crassifolia was the epiphyte that colonized most of the phorophytes and showed the highest Epiphytic Importance Value (EIV). The average values for thickness, saturated weight, water retention capacity, and diameter were significantly higher in the tree species that housed vascular epiphytes. In addition, the vascular epiphyte richness (R2m = 0.32; R2c = 0.41) and abundance (R2m = 0.36; R2c = 0.90) were strongly influenced by larger diameters of phorophytes and their saturated bark weight. Our results confirm the importance of phorophyte size (DBH) for epiphyte colonization, present the most complete epiphyte list of Amazonian black-water floodplain forests and provide evidence that physical attributes of tree bark drive the structure of vascular epiphyte-phorophyte interactions.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-CAPES and the Programa de Pós-graduação em Botânica do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia—INPA. We thank CNPq for financing the research projects: the Long-term Ecological Research Network–PELD (CNPq/CAPES/ FAPS/BC, NEWTON PROGRAM FUND, grant number 441590/2016-0; MCTI/CNPq/FAPs, grant number 403792/2012-6). This study was financed by the Fundação de Amparo á Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM) (FIXAM/FAPEAM, grant number 017/2914 and PELD/FAPEAM, grant number 062.01357/2017), by the EU Project BiodivERsA—Clambio (BMBF 16LC2025A), and by the Technical/Scientific Cooperation Agreement between INPA and the Max-Planck-Society. We also thank Kleuto Moraes and José Ferreira Ramos for all their support in the field and in the identification of tree species.

Funding

The work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brasil, 130805/2020-3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology, Monitoring, and Sustainable Use of Wetlands - MAUA, National Institute for Amazon Research, Manaus, Brazil

    Jeisiane Santos da Silva, Maria Teresa Fernandez Piedade, Viviane Pagnussat Klein, Flávia Machado Durgante, Florian Wittmann & Adriano Costa Quaresma

  2. Graduate Program in Botany, Institute of Research of the Amazonas - INPA, Manaus, Brazil

    Viviane Pagnussat Klein

  3. Wetland Ecology, Institute for Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Flávia Machado Durgante, Florian Wittmann & Adriano Costa Quaresma

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  1. Jeisiane Santos da Silva
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All the authors contributed to the conception and writing of the manuscript. JSS, MTFP and ACQ prepared the research project. Field collection and statistical analysis were carried out by JSS, VPK, and ACQ. The first version of the manuscript was written by JSS and all the authors reviewed, drafted and critically commented on all versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jeisiane Santos da Silva.

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da Silva, J.S., Piedade, M.T.F., Klein, V.P. et al. Large diameters and tree bark physical attributes drive vascular epiphyte-phorophyte relationships in Amazonian black-water floodplain forest. Plant Ecol 225, 163–173 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-023-01387-1

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