Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment

(Dr. Soubadra Devy, Dr. R. Ganesan)

Supported by Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi

Extreme climatic conditions, narrow adaptability, their complex relationship with substratum, canopy architecture and host specificity makes epiphytes a complex system to understand (Freiberg. M 1996, Johansson and Awan 1972, Wolf et al 2003). The animals associated with epiphytes share their adaptability to such extremities in climatic conditions and also have adaptability to their disjunct distribution. Epiphytic can support rich canopy biodiversity by forming associations and facilitating interactions among and within a wide diversity of taxa like birds, insects, amphibians and few mammals by providing resources in the form of food, hiding, breeding place etc (Remsen & Parker 1984, Nadkarni and Matelson 1989, Nadkarni et al 2001 ). The first ever study in India was carried out to identify the determinants of epiphyte occurrence on trees and its links with faunal community by accessing the canopy.

Epiphytes show a non random pattern of distribution with strong preference to one species, Cullenia exarillata in the forest. Other species in forest seldom harboured good epiphytic load. This in turn influences the fauna associated with epiphyte. The root mats of these epiphytes trapped a lot of leaf litter. These epiphytes were also encountered in branches that were loaded in moss. This was mostly on orthotropic branches (facing upwards), which facilitates exuberant growth of moss. The combination of moss and leaf litter supports fauna which is both unique to the canopy and also share species with ground litter. However, the outer branches, which face harsh conditions does not support many insects, in spite of epiphytes’ presence. However, there seems a strong preference of host species, which happens to be not more than 5 species of the canopy trees. Even within these 5 species only 2 had maximum load of epiphytes, and these canopy species happen to be the more commonly occurring species in the forest. Epiphytes exhibit a non-random distribution and the fauna associated with them closely adheres to its distribution.