Complex consequences of disturbance on canopy plant communities of world forests: a review and synthesis

Abstract

Epiphytes and their associated biota are increasingly recognized as contributing to biodiversity and to filling critical ecosystem functions in world forests. However, the attributes that have made them successful in canopy environments also make them vulnerable to natural and human-induced disturbances. Drawing upon ecological frameworks to understand disturbance, I categorized and synthesized the drivers and the consequences of disturbances on epiphytic materials. Across all impacts, disturbance agents were significantly more likely to lead to negative, rather than positive, effects in both tropical and temperate locales. Significantly more studies reported negative effects on abundance, diversity, community composition and connectivity, but some studies showed that disturbances enhanced these attributes. Although particular disturbance agents did not differently influence individual consequences, they explained a significant portion of variation in aggregated totals. Surprisingly, relative to human disturbances, natural disturbances were more likely to lead to negative effects. Many studies provided recommendations for effective societal responses to mitigate negative impacts, such as retaining large, old trees in forestry operations, patch-clearing for epiphyte harvest, maximizing forest fragment size, using epiphytes as bioindicators of disturbance, and applying principles of community forestry to land management. Future actions should also include communication of these results to policymakers and land managers.