The vascular epiphyte flora in a white-sand ecosystem of the Uatum&amp;atilde; Sustainable Development Reserve, Central Amazon

Adriano Costa Quaresma,Maria Teresa Fernandez Piedade,Jefferson Da Cruz,Viviane Pagnussat Klein,Layon Oreste Demarchi

doi:10.15560/18.1.157

Abstract

Amazon ecosystems have suffered constant losses due to fragmentation processes, which as a result puts associated biodiversity at risk. Although vascular epiphytes constitute a representative component of tropical forests, they are still poorly studied in white-sand ecosystems. We present a description and checklist of the vascular epiphytes present in white-sand ecosystems (campinaranas) in the Central Amazon. We also analyzed the structure and determined of the value of epiphytic importance (VEI) for the species. We recorded 112 species, 58 genera, and 16 families of vascular epiphytes. The greatest richness (95 spp.) was observed in forested phytophysiognomies. Orchidaceae (66 spp.), Bromeliaceae (12 spp.), and Araceae (9 spp.) were the richest families. Prosthechea aemula W.E.Higgins (Orchidaceae) had the highest VEI and accounted for about 28% of an abundance of individuals. Among the species, 36.6% have a distribution restricted to the Amazon region, which emphasizes the importance of the conservation of these environments.

Highlights

The Amazon occupies 40% of the territory of South America and possesses in its different ecosystems the greatest plant biodiversity on the planet (Mayer and Pimm 1997)
We describe the epiphytic flora and present a checklist of the species of vascular epiphytes that occur in the various phytophysiognomies of the campinaranas found in the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (Uatumã SDR) in the state of Amazonas, Brazil
Considering the proposed classifications for the Amazonian campinaranas (Veloso et al 1991; IBGE 2012) and the local conditions, such as the exposure level to the water table and the structure and composition of the arboreal vegetation, the campinaranas of the Uatumã SDR were classified into six phytophysiognomies: open shrubby campinarana, dense shrubby campinarana, open arboreal campinarana, dense arboreal campinarana, open forested campinarana, and dense forested campinarana

Summary

Introduction

The Amazon occupies 40% of the territory of South America and possesses in its different ecosystems the greatest plant biodiversity on the planet (Mayer and Pimm 1997). The general characteristics of the campinaranas include sandy, acidic, nutrient-poor soils (podzols) and water saturation or even exposure of the water table during rainy periods, but with a water deficit in dry periods (Rossetti et al 2019; Capurucho et al 2020) These combined characteristics act as environmental filters (Fine and Kembel 2011; Costa et al 2020) which select plants with morphological, anatomical, and/or physiological adaptations, and, there is a high number of endemic lineages and species (Fine et al 2010; Fine and Baraloto 2016; Guevara et al 2016; Capurucho et al 2020). There is still a great lack of studies on the structure and, especially, on the underlying ecological patterns and processes that allow us to understand the distribution of epiphytic flora in these oligotrophic ecosystems (Zotz 2016)

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