Data from: Primary ecological succession in vascular epiphytes: the species accumulation model

Epiphytes are integral to tropical forests yet little is understood about
how succession proceeds in these communities. As trees increase in size
they create microhabitats for late-colonizing species in both small and
large branches while maintaining small tree microhabitats for early
colonizing species in the small and young branches. Thus, epiphyte
succession may follow different models depending on the scale: at the
scale of the entire tree, epiphytes may follow a species accumulation
model where species are continuously added to the tree as trees increase
in size but at the scale of one zone on a branch (e.g., inner crown: 0–2 m
from the trunk), they may follow the replacement model of succession seen
in terrestrial ecosystems. Assuming tree size as an indicator of tree age,
I surveyed 61 Virola koschnyi trees of varying size (2.5–103.3 cm diameter
at breast height) in lowland wet tropical forest in Costa Rica to examine
how epiphyte communities change through succession. Epiphyte communities
in small trees were nested subsets of those in large trees and epiphyte
communities became more similar to the largest trees as trees increased in
size. Furthermore, epiphyte species in small trees were replaced by mid-
and late-successional species in the oldest parts of the tree crown but
dispersed toward the younger branches as trees increased in size. Thus,
epiphyte succession followed a replacement model in particular zones
within treecrowns but a species accumulation model at the scale of the
entire tree crown.