Including dynamics in the equation: Tree growth rates and host specificity of vascular epiphytes

1. The forest canopy is home to a rich biota. One salient feature are the dynamics of the habitat-building trees, which are growing and eventually vanishing. Tree species strongly differ in growth rates, final size and longevity. Nevertheless, these inherent dynamics have been a blind spot in studies on host specificity of vascular epiphytes (vascular plants dwelling on trees without parasitizing them) – not least because tree growth rates and longevity are usually unknown in highly diverse tropical forests. The present study aims at tackling this blind spot.
2. We compared epiphyte abundances (> 23,000 individuals) found on 285 individuals of four focal tree species in a lowland moist forest in Panama. Data on repeated dbh censuses from a permanent tree plot provided the unique opportunity to estimate the age of our sampled trees. We compared the relative importance of tree longevity for host biases with that of other host tree characteristics, namely microclimatic conditions and ba...