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En escala local, la alta diversidad de epífitas vasculares en bosques montanos neotropicales ha sido explicada por que logran estratificar verticalmente al dosel y tienen relaciones específicas con sus hospederos. En un bosque de montaña estudiamos la estratificación vertical y las preferencias de hospedero de las epífitas vasculares en un cuadrante de 0.0625 ha en donde muestreamos 41 árboles ≥10 DAP, durante 12 meses en los años 2001 y 2002. Encontramos 43 especies de epífitas en 15 géneros de árboles. Probamos preferencia de estratos verticales o de hospedero con 19 táxones epífitos. Encontramos evidencia de que las epífitas se dividen el dosel; aunque, las epífitas dispersadas por animales tendieron a ser generalistas. Entre las epífitas dispersadas por el viento reconocimos una clara estratificación vertical, concentrando especies en la parte baja de los árboles. En promedio las especies de epífitas prefirieron 3.5 especies de hospederos, sugiriendo una baja preferencia. Dos especies de árboles resultaron ser malos hospederos, Ardisia y Quercus. Nuestros resultados muestran que las epífitas parten el dosel horizontalmente, se estratifican verticalmente y sugieren que la identidad de los hospederos es importante por que puede determinar la abundancia de sitios colonizables para muchas epífitas.Vertical stratification and host preference by vascular epiphytes in a Chiapas, Mexico, cloud forest. The high diversity of vascular epiphytes in neotropical montane forest has been explained as the result of vertical stratification of the forest and specific relationships between epiphytes and their hosts trees at local scales. In a lower montane cloud forest, we studied the vertical stratification and host preferences of vascular epiphytes in a 0.0625 ha plot where 41 trees ≥ of 10 cm DBH were sampled during 12 months in 2001 and 2002. We found 43 epiphyte species growing on 15 tree genera. We tested for vertical strata and host preferences using 19 epiphyte taxa. We found strong evidence that epiphytes divided the canopy, but those epiphyte species dispersed by animals were generalists with respect to hosts and vertical strata. Wind dispersed epiphytes were vertically stratified, with a higher richness in the lowest tree strata. On average the epiphytes preferred 3.5 host species, suggesting low host preference. Two host species, Ardisia and Quercus, were avoided by the majority of the epiphyte species. Our results show that epiphytes divided the canopy horizontally and were stratified vertically, suggesting that host identity could be important determining the abundance of colonizing sites for epiphytes. Rev. Biol. Trop. 56 (4): 2069-2086. Epub 2008 December 12.

Vertical stratification and host preference by vascular epiphytes in a Chiapas, Mexico, cloud forest. The high diversity of vascular epiphytes in neotropical montane forest has been explained as the result of vertical stratification of the forest and specific relationships between epiphytes and their hosts trees at local scales. In a lower montane cloud forest, we studied the vertical stratification and host preferences of vascular epiphytes in a 0.0625 ha plot where 41 trees ⩾ of 10 cm DBH were sampled during 12 months in 2001 and 2002. We found 43 epiphyte species growing on 15 tree genera. We tested for vertical strata and host preferences using 19 epiphyte taxa. We found strong evidence that epiphytes divided the canopy, but those epiphyte species dispersed by animals were generalists with respect to hosts and vertical strata. Wind dispersed epiphytes were vertically stratified, with a higher richness in the lowest tree strata. On average the epiphytes preferred 3.5 host species, suggesting low host preference. Two host species, Ardisia and Quercus, were avoided by the majority of the epiphyte species. Our results show that epiphytes divided the canopy horizontally and were stratified vertically, suggesting that host identity could be important determining the abundance of colonizing sites for epiphytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]