Vascular epiphytes form a diverse group of almost 30 000 species, yet theory concerning their community structure is still largely lacking. We therefore employed the simplest models of biodiversity, (near‐)neutral models, to generate hypotheses concerning their community structure. With recently developed tools for (near‐)neutral models we analyzed species abundance data from many samples in Central and South America which we divided into four metacommunities (Mesoamerica, Central America, Amazonia and Paraná), where for each metacommunity we considered two subsets differing in dispersal syndrome: an animal‐dispersed guild and a wind‐dispersed guild. We considered three models differing in the underlying speciation mode. Across all metacommunities, we found observed patterns to be indistinguishable from patterns generated by neutral or near‐neutral processes. Furthermore, we found that subdivision in different dispersal guilds was often supported, with recruitment limitation being stronger for animal‐dispersed species than for wind‐dispersed species. This is the first time that (near‐)neutral theory has been applied to epiphyte communities. Future efforts with additional data sets and more refined models are expected to further improve our understanding of community structure in epiphytes and will have to test the generality of our findings.

中文翻译：

---

血管附生植物的群落结构：中立观点

血管附生植物形成了近3万个物种的多样化群体，但是仍然缺乏关于其群落结构的理论。因此，我们采用了最简单的生物多样性模型（（近）中性模型）来产生关于其群落结构的假设。利用最近开发的（近）中性模型工具，我们分析了中美洲和南美洲许多样本的物种丰度数据，我们将其划分为四个中共（中美洲，中美洲，亚马逊和巴拉那州），其中对于每个中共，我们认为两个不同的子集在散布综合症中：一个动物散布的行会和一个风散的行会。我们考虑了三种基本物种形成模式不同的模型。在所有元社区中，我们发现观察到的模式与中性或接近中性过程生成的模式没有区别。此外，我们发现经常支持在不同的行会中进行细分，动物分散的物种的征聘限制比风散的物种强。这是（近）中性理论首次应用于附生植物群落。预计未来将使用更多的数据集和更完善的模型来进一步提高我们对附生植物群落结构的了解，并将不得不检验我们发现的一般性。这是（近）中性理论首次应用于附生植物群落。预计未来将使用更多的数据集和更完善的模型来进一步提高我们对附生植物群落结构的了解，并将不得不检验我们发现的一般性。这是（近）中性理论首次应用于附生植物群落。预计未来将使用更多的数据集和更完善的模型来进一步提高我们对附生植物群落结构的了解，并将不得不检验我们发现的一般性。