Authors: Gerhard Zotz
Publish Date: 2003/10/31
Volume: 138, Issue: 2, Pages: 184-192
Abstract
The occurrence of crassulacean acid metabolism CAM in the epiphyte community of a lowland forest of the Atlantic slope of Panama was investigated I hypothesized that CAM is mostly found in orchids of which many species are relatively small and/or rare Thus the relative proportion of species with CAM should not be a good indicator for the prevalence of this photosynthetic pathway in a community when expressed on an individual or a biomass basis In 04 ha of forest 103 species of vascular epiphytes with 13099 individuals were found As judged from the C isotope ratios and the absence of Kranz anatomy CAM was detected in 20 species 194 of the total which were members of the families Orchidaceae Bromeliaceae and Cactaceae As predicted the contribution of CAM epiphytes to the total number of individuals and to total biomass 696 kg ha1 was considerably lower 36 or 466 individuals and respectively 30 or 21 kg ha1The excellent assistance of S Schultz Würzburg Germany was essential for the success of this study Funds came from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute STRI Panama the United Nations Environmental Program the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft the FAG Basel Switzerland and the A F W Schimperstiftung Stuttgart Germany Thanks to S J Wright V Horlyck J Herrera and E Andrade all STRI for organising work at the Crane Help with the identification of epiphytes from D Lellinger Washington DC J Atwood Sarasota USA R Dressler Florida and C Galdames STRI is appreciated P Hietz Vienna did not hesitate to dig out decadeold data Finally many thanks to W Wanek Vienna for help with the mass spectrometry
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