Associations between Epiphytic Orchids and Their Hosts and Future Perspectives of These in the Context of Global Warming

0586382 - ÚVGZ 2025 RIV CH eng J - Journal Article
Timsina, Binu - Münzbergová, Z. - Kindlmann, Pavel - Bhattarai, B. P. - Shrestha, Bikram - Raskoti, B. B. - Rokaya, Maan Bahadur
Associations between Epiphytic Orchids and Their Hosts and Future Perspectives of These in the Context of Global Warming.
Diversity. Roč. 16, č. 4 (2024), č. článku 252. E-ISSN 1424-2818
Institutional support: RVO:86652079
Keywords : plant-species richness * elevational gradient * vascular epiphytes * kathmandu valley * diversity * mountains * patterns * models * nepal * climate change * epiphyte * Himalayas * host * phi coefficient * rarefaction
OECD category: Plant sciences, botany
Impact factor: 2.4, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380008870_Associations_between_Epiphytic_Orchids_and_Their_Hosts_and_Future_Perspectives_of_These_in_the_Context_of_Global_Warming#fullTextFileContent

Epiphytic species are ecologically important and a significant component of biodiversity. To ensure their efficient conservation, we need to understand their ecology and host plant associations. It is also important to investigate how the predicted temperature change will affect their future distribution. Here, we use data collected in Nepal to investigate how epiphytic orchids are associated with host species, their distribution patterns, and how they may be threatened by the predicted increase in temperature towards the end of the 21st century. We used the phi coefficient (Phi) of association to calculate the associations of epiphytic orchid species with plants and rarefaction to describe the diversity of orchids associated with a particular host species. We used interpolation to estimate the distribution of epiphytic orchids and their host species along altitudinal gradients. The phi (Phi) coefficient of association revealed that 30 species of host plants showed more association with different orchid species than expected. The number of epiphytic orchids increased with the number of host individuals. We predict that an increase in temperature by similar to 3 degrees C, which is a more moderate value of temperature increase by the end of the 21st century, will affect at least 52 narrow-ranged species of orchids and 58 narrow-ranged species of host plants. Therefore, we should make efforts to prevent many plant species from becoming extinct, as an increase in temperature is likely to affect their existence.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0353926