Litter–trapping tank bromeliads in five different forests: carbon and nutrient pools and fluxes

Bromeliads are the most abundant litter–trapping plants in Neotropical forest canopies. By intercepting litter, bromeliads obtain and retain nutrients before they reach the pedosphere. Here, we analyzed the litter captured and stored by tank bromeliads (TB) in five different forests along an elevation gradient in Mexico. Among those forests, carbon and nutrient pools and nitrogen fluxes in TB were estimated in a mangrove (MF) and a semi–deciduous tropical forest (SDTF). The composition of the litter trapped by TB along the gradient was similar to forest litterfall and was mainly composed of leaves. Most of the litter was captured in the dry season and we found a significant effect of projected plant area and the interaction between month and site on bromeliad litter capture. Moreover, litter stored in TB increased exponentially with projected plant area and differed between three studied species. In the MF (with ca. 2,700 TB ha-1), barely ca. 1% of annual litterfall is trapped by these ...