Original paper
Epiphyte communities of tropical montane rain forests in the northern Andes II. Upper montane communities
Wolf, Jan H. D.
Phytocoenologia Band 22 Heft 1 (1993), p. 53 - 103
43 references
published: Jun 29, 1993
ArtNo. ESP024002201003, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
In a series of two papers epiphytic shade and canopy communities from tropical montane rain forests in the northern Andes are described for the first time, using the Braun-Blanquet approach in phytosociology (Westhoff & van der Maarel 1973). The study was carried out in an altitudinal transect ranging from 1000 m to 4130 m on the west slope of the Central Cordillera in Colombia, near Pereira, capital of Risaralda (ca. 4°50 N 75°30 W). A description of the study area, the forest climate, the methods of sampling used and an account of the communities of Lower Montane Rain forest may be found in the first paper (Wolf 1993). A TWINSPAN analysis (Hill 1979) of 528 relevés resulted in 20 communities, clustered into four, altitudinally separated, main groups. Two additional species poor communities could not be placed with confidence in any of the four groups. In this paper the communities from higher altitudes will be described followed by a summary and a general discussion of epiphyte communities in the altitudinal transect.
Keywords
upper montane communities • epiphyte communities • Central Cordillera • Colombia