Svahnström Vida J, Nic Lughadha Eimear, Forest Félix, Leão Tarciso C C
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK.
Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, UK.
Nat Plants. 2025 Jun 13. doi: 10.1038/s41477-025-02022-9.
For over a century, epiphytes have been considered to have larger geographic ranges than terrestrial plants, yet this assumption is based on studies at restricted geographic and taxonomic scales and is contradicted by recent research. Misunderstanding the ranges of epiphytes may distort perceptions of their extinction risk. To address this, here we analysed global data on 330,087 angiosperm species, including 27,184 epiphytes, comparing range size and rarity between epiphytes and terrestrial plants. We calculated three range metrics, tested for differences across angiosperms and within epiphyte-rich families and used phylogenetic regressions to explore the role of epiphytism on species ranges. On average, epiphytes have larger ranges than closely related terrestrial species, supporting hypotheses that epiphytism promotes dispersal. However, small ranges are prevalent in epiphyte-rich families regardless of lifeform. Notably, about half of epiphyte species are rare, indicating greater vulnerability than terrestrials. Epiphyte rarity is attributable to evolutionary history and shared traits rather than epiphytism itself.
一个多世纪以来，附生植物一直被认为比陆生植物具有更大的地理分布范围，然而这一假设是基于在有限的地理和分类尺度上的研究，并且与最近的研究相矛盾。对附生植物分布范围的误解可能会扭曲对其灭绝风险的认知。为了解决这个问题，我们分析了330,087种被子植物的全球数据，其中包括27,184种附生植物，比较了附生植物和陆生植物之间的分布范围大小和稀有程度。我们计算了三个分布范围指标，测试了被子植物之间以及附生植物丰富的科内的差异，并使用系统发育回归来探讨附生习性对物种分布范围的作用。平均而言，附生植物的分布范围比亲缘关系相近的陆生物种更大，这支持了附生习性促进扩散的假说。然而，无论生活型如何，小范围分布在附生植物丰富的科中都很普遍。值得注意的是，约一半的附生植物物种很稀有，这表明它们比陆生植物更脆弱。附生植物的稀有性归因于进化历史和共同特征，而不是附生习性本身。
