Project description
Understanding the effects of symbiotic relationships on tropical epiphytic orchids
With the growing threat of climate change, understanding the circumstances that limit the dispersal of plant species is essential to their conservation. Factors such as climate, competition and resilience are well-documented, but little is known about limitations imposed by complex mutualistic relationships amongst species. In order to narrow this knowledge gap, the EU-funded EpiNet project will conduct an extensive study on species of tropical orchid that depend on both host trees and mycorrhizal fungi for survival. The study will compile data from natural habitats, identify the diversity of mutual partnerships and run germination experiments. The results will provide insight into the bionomics of unique species and their preservation.
Objective
Understanding the factors that limit species distribution is a longstanding question in ecology. In land plants, species distribution is simultaneously limited by multiple factors, including climate, dispersal ability, competition, and species' physiological tolerance. The ecological requirements of obligate inter-specific interactions impose additional, often over-looked, limitations. How complex interactions influence plant species distribution has received little attention despite its relevance for species conservation in the face of global change. EpiNet will address this gap by investigating how two obligate partners, interacting with abiotic factors, influence plant distribution in mega-diverse tropical assemblages. Tropical epiphytic orchids provide an exceptional study model because they depend on two partners to germinate and grow: a host tree and mycorrhizal fungi. To this end, I propose to study tripartite interaction networks of tropical epiphytic orchids with their partners under different ecological conditions. I will examine the effect of host trees and mycorrhizal fungal diversity on orchid species distribution across geographical and local gradients, analyzing how abiotic factors such as temperature, humidity and light availability affect these interactions. I will establish germination experiments to assess whether orchids replace mycorrhizal partners over ontogeny or retain them for a lifetime. Mycorrhizal replacement is an understudied variable that may influence seedling establishment success. The methodology combines extensive data collection in natural communities (from dry to cloud tropical forests in the Colombian Andes), cutting-edge techniques in molecular biology (mycorrhizal DNA meta-barcoding), and advanced statistical analyses (tripartite networks). This innovative and integrated approach will provide an unprecedented, comprehensive understanding of the ecological factors influencing the distribution of tropical epiphytic orchids.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinator
3000 Leuven
Belgium