Abstract
Knowledge of the geographic distribution of plants is essential to underpin the understanding of global biodiversity patterns. Vascular epiphytes are important components of diversity and functionality of Neotropical forests but, unlike their terrestrial counterparts, they are under-represented in large-scale diversity and biogeographic analyses. This is the case for the Atlantic Forest - one of the most diverse and threatened biomes worldwide. We provide the first comprehensive species list of Atlantic Forest vascular epiphytes; their endemism patterns and threatened species occurrence have also been analyzed. A list with 2,256 species of (hemi-)epiphytes - distributed in 240 genera and 33 families - is presented based on the updated Brazilian Flora Checklist. This represents more than 15% of the total vascular plant richness in the Atlantic Forest. Moreover, 256 species are included on the Brazilian Red List. More than 93% of the overall richness is concentrated in ten families, with 73% represented by Orchidaceae and Bromeliaceae species alone. A total of 78% of epiphytic species are endemic to the Atlantic Forest, in contrast to overall vascular plant endemism in this biome estimated at 57%. Among the non-endemics, 13% of epiphytic species also occur either in the Amazon or in the Cerrado - the other two largest biomes of Brazil – and only 8% are found in two or more Brazilian biomes. This pattern of endemism, in addition to available dated phylogenies of some genera, indicate the dominance of recent radiations of epiphytic groups in the Atlantic Forest, showing that the majority of divergences dating from the Pliocene onwards are similar to those that were recently reported for other Neotropical plants.
Highlights
Geographic distribution of vascular plant species forms the framework to understand terrestrial diversity patterns, their relationship to environmental and historical factors and the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying these patterns (Currie et al 2004, Ricklefs 2004, Kreft and Jetz 2007).The Neotropical region harbours more species than any other place on Earth (Gentry 1982)
The scarcity of distributional data has hampered progress towards developing more general models for the region (Kamino et al 2012).Vascular epiphytes are known to be an important component of plant diversity in Neotropical forests, less is understood about their ecology and phytogeography than about their terrestrial counterparts (Kreftet al. 2004)
Orchidaceae and Bromeliaceae comprised the richest families with almost 73% of vascular epiphyte species, while Polypodiaceae alone comprises more than 40% of fern and lycophyte epiphytic species (Fig. 2)
Summary
Geographic distribution of vascular plant species forms the framework to understand terrestrial diversity patterns, their relationship to environmental and historical factors and the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying these patterns (Currie et al 2004, Ricklefs 2004, Kreft and Jetz 2007).The Neotropical region harbours more species than any other place on Earth (Gentry 1982). The high abundance of vascular epiphytes constitutes a remarkable characteristic of tropical forests. The importance of epiphytic plants functional role in forest communities cannot be underestimated, as they influence nutrient cycles and provide shelter as well as nesting materials and food for animals (review in Bartels and Chen 2012). They can enhance diversity, as is the case of the microcosms associated with bromeliad phytotelmata (Richardson 1999).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
