ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of epiphyte species from the Atlantic Forest of South America: non-vascular and vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), Lichens and Fungi

FLAVIO NUNES RAMOS; DI PASQUO, M.

ECOLOGY

ECOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Año: 2019 vol. 100 p. 1 - 60

0012-9658

http://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1939-9170/resources/publicity-esa.html SE TRATA DE UN TRABAJO EN COLABORACION CON ALGO MAS DE 80 AUTORES PARA GENERAR UNA BASE DE DATOS DE EPIFITAS DE ALCANCE SUDAMERICANOEpiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued lifeform in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the AtlanticForest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have a highendemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile alarge Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plant (includinghemiepiphytes), and Lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance;(2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order toindicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte dataset with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophytespecies. All data compiled here comes from three main sources provided bythe authors: published sources (comprising peer reviewed articles, books,and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a dataset composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphytes records,in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, recordedfrom 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data(occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. Forquantitative records, the most common sampling method was individualtrees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling(10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group,and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatestnumber of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns andLycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceaewere the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southernand Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and Lichens werescarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern regionof the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plants records, Lejeuneaceae, afamily of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effortto organize scattered epiphyte data help advancing the knowledge ofepiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological andbiogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest.