Greetings and welcome back to the epiphyte blog for 2015! We're going to start the year with some brand new and very interesting research.
Carl Rosier from Rutgers State University of New Jersey led a team on St Catherine’s Island to study throughfall under three scenarios: clear canopy, bare trees and trees laden with Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). Throughfall is defined as "the part of rainfall or other precipitation which falls to the forest floor from the canopy". The team assessed the differences in precipitation input, ion enrichment, and ion flux in the soils of each scenario.
The researchers found that throughfall water supply diminished with increasing canopy cover, yet the soils received increased Na+ , Cl- , PO4 3-, and SO4 2- from the canopy. The presence of the epiphyte T. usneoides diminished throughfall NO3 - , but enhanced NH4 +. As a result, the upper soil layer had different soil chemistry between the open canopy, tree canopy and epiphyte-laden tree canopy (A, B & C below).
The research article states that "these results suggest that modifications of forest canopy structures are capable of affecting ... soil microbial community structure via throughfall when canopies’ biomass distribution is highly heterogeneous."
Thinking about NZ forests, it certainly isn't hard to believe that the soils in A, B & C (below) would be different. Simplified, epiphytes intercept water and nutrients from the canopy and atmosphere, transform them and deliver them in different quantities and forms to the forest floor. And this all varies depending on the flora and fauna within the epiphyte community... gets ya thinking!
The research article states that "these results suggest that modifications of forest canopy structures are capable of affecting ... soil microbial community structure via throughfall when canopies’ biomass distribution is highly heterogeneous."
Thinking about NZ forests, it certainly isn't hard to believe that the soils in A, B & C (below) would be different. Simplified, epiphytes intercept water and nutrients from the canopy and atmosphere, transform them and deliver them in different quantities and forms to the forest floor. And this all varies depending on the flora and fauna within the epiphyte community... gets ya thinking!
Diagrammatic soil ecosystem under an open canopy.
Diagrammatic soil ecosystem under an epiphyte-free canopy.
Diagrammatic soil ecosystem under an epiphyte-laden canopy.
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