Bryophyte cover on trees as proxy for air humidity in the tropics

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• 作者：Dirk Nikolaus Karger^a ; ^{dirk.karger@systbot.uzh.ch} ; Jü ; rgen Kluge^a ; Stefan Abrahamczyk^a ; Laura Salazar^b ; Jü ; rgen Homeier^b ; Marcus Lehnert^c ; Victor B. Amoroso^d ; Michael Kessler^a
• 关键词：Bryophytes ; Bryophyte cover ; Elevational gradient ; Relative air humidity ; Temperature ; Vapour pressure deficit
• 刊名：Ecological Indicators
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：22_1470160x
• 类别：env
• 出版时间：September, 2012
• 卷：20
• 期：Complete
• 页码：277-281
• 文件大小：417 K

摘要

Climatic conditions are a prime candidate to explain local patterns of biodiversity and consequently there is great need of on-site climatic measurements. Among them, however, air humidity is notoriously difficult and time-consuming to measure, and it has been proposed that the epiphytic bryophyte cover can be used as an indicator of long-term air humidity conditions. Here we explore the utility of visually estimated epiphytic bryophyte cover on large canopy branches as a proxy for air humidity at 26 study sites in tropical forests where we measured microclimate for at least 12 months. Across all sites, bryophyte cover was weakly related to relative air humidity (R² = 0.17), but when we separated highland (1800-3500 m elevation) from lowland (<1800 m) sites, relative air humidity showed significant and distinct relations to bryophyte cover (R² = 0.36-0.62), whereas temperature was related to bryophyte cover only in the lowlands (R² = 0.36). We conclude that epiphytic bryophyte cover can be used as a proxy for air humidity if temperature and elevation are taken into account within a circumscribed study region, but might not be applicable for comparisons across extensive elevational gradients or wide differences in temperature.