TY  - JOUR
A1  - Cummings, Jason
A1  - Martin, Michelle
A1  - Rogers, Anne
T1  - Quantifying the abundance of four large epiphytic fern species in
remnant complex notophyll vine forest on the Atherton Tableland,
north Queensland, Australia
T2  - Cunninghamia : a journal of plant ecology for eastern Australia
N2  - Epiphytes are generally considered rare in complex forests on the western edge of the Atherton Tablelands, north Queensland. This assertion is based on comparisons with wetter forests in the Wet Tropics bioregion, but is of limited use in restoration projects where targets need to be quantified. We quantified ‘rarity’ for a subset of the epiphyte community in one of the largest remaining patches of Type 5b rainforest at Wongabel State Forest(17°18' S, 145°28' E). The bundance of large individuals of the epiphytic fern species Asplenium australasicum, Drynaria rigidula, Platycerium bifurcatum, and Platycerium superbum were recorded from 100 identified midstorey or canopy trees. Epiphytes were less rare than the canopy trees sampled, averaging 1.7 individuals per tree. A clumped distribution was suggested with large epiphytes only occurring on 57 of the 100 trees. As tree size increased so did the number of individuals and species of large epiphytes recorded; only trees taller than 20 m yielded more than one epiphyte. Trees from the Meliaceae and Rutaceae hosted the most epiphytes, but host tree specificity patterns were not conclusive. Techniques for including epiphytes in restoration planning and projects are considered, and a quantified restoration target for epiphyte communities in Type 5b plantings is outlined.
Y1  - 2006
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/31167
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-311679
VL  - 9
IS  - 4
SP  - 521
EP  - 527
ER  -