Remnant large 'rescue' trees enhance epiphyte resilience to anthropogenic disturbance of pine-oak forests in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico

I studied vascular epiphytes in 16 pine-oak forest fragments within an 400 km2 relatively flat area at c. 2300 m elevation on an extended gradient of anthropogenic disturbance. Epiphyte biomass and species richness on 35 oak host trees in six diameter classes varied between the sites from 0.8 to 243 kg and from 13 to 34 species. Forest disturbance, measured as the proportion of sprouted oaks, had an expected negative effect on the epiphyte biomass and alpha diversity per ground surface area, and also per 35 oak host trees (ANCOVA, P