Environmental correlates of leaf stress symptoms in the micro-orchid Lepanthes woodburyana following Hurricane María

Abstract

Cloud forest species face many threats including, but not limited to, climate change and increased extreme weather events. On September 20th, 2017, Hurricane Maria hit the island of Puerto Rico, changing the amount of coverage, structure, and microclimate of its forests. Cloud forest epiphytes can be particularly susceptible to such dramatic changes. Following Hurricane Maria, we studied the leaf characteristics potentially associated with reduced leaf health in the Lepanthes woodburyana, an epiphytic micro-orchid, endemic to Puerto Rico. We specifically assessed whether the environmental (e.g., microclimate, percent canopy cover, elevation) and biological factors intrinsic to the plant (e.g., plant size, life stage) were associated with variation in percent canopy cover, the number and the probability of occurrence of dark spots and discoloration on the leaves of L. woodburyana. We expected to find negative associations between variables related to plants that had dark spots and discoloration with forest cover and humidity, and positive associations between the occurrence of dark spots with plant size and temperature. Our results showed that dark spot formation was more frequent at lower elevations, open canopies and high temperatures, suggesting plant stress symptoms associated to canopy changes following hurricane events are not homogeneous throughout the forest.

Citation

Encarnación-Ojeda, M.; Meléndez-Ackerman, E.; Hernández-Muñiz, R. 2021. Environmental correlates of leaf stress symptoms in the micro-orchid Lepanthes woodburyana following Hurricane María. Acta Científica. 32(1-3): 73-83.