Data from: Ecosystem services provided by bromeliad plants: a systematic review

The unprecedented loss of biological diversity has negative impacts on
ecosystems and the associated benefits which they provide to humans.
Bromeliads have high diversity throughout the Neotropics, but they have
been negatively affected by habitat loss and fragmentation, climate
change, herbivorous species invasions, and they are also being
commercialized for ornamental use. These plants provide direct benefits to
the human society and they also form micro ecosystems in which accumulated
water and nutrients support the communities of aquatic and terrestrial
species, thus maintaining local diversity. We performed a systematic
review of the contribution of bromeliads to ecosystem services across
their native geographical distribution. We showed that bromeliads provide
a range of ecosystem services such as maintenance of biodiversity,
community structure, nutrient cycling, and the availability of food and
water. Moreover, bromeliads can regulate the spread of diseases, water and
carbon cycling, and they have the potential to become important sources of
chemical and pharmaceutical products. The majority of this research was
performed in Brazil, but future research from other Neotropical countries
with a high diversity of bromeliads would fill the current knowledge gaps,
and increase the generality of these findings. This systematic review
identified that future research should focus on provisioning, regulating
and cultural services that have been currently overlooked. This would
improve our understanding of how bromeliad diversity contributes to human
welfare, and the negative consequences that loss of bromeliad plants can
have on communities of other species and the healthy functioning of the
entire ecosystems.