Vascular epiphytes are a diverse and conspicuous component of biodiversity in tropical and subtropical forests. Yet, the patterns and drivers of epiphyte assemblages are poorly studied in comparison with soil‐rooted plants. Current knowledge about diversity patterns of epiphytes mainly stems from local studies or floristic inventories, but this information has not yet been integrated to allow a better understanding of large‐scale distribution patterns. EpIG‐DB, the first database on epiphyte assemblages at the continental scale, resulted from an exhaustive compilation of published and unpublished inventory data from the Neotropics. The current version of EpIG‐DB consists of 463,196 individual epiphytes from 3,005 species, which were collected from a total of 18,148 relevés (host trees and ‘understory’ plots). EpIG‐DB reports the occurrence of ‘true’ epiphytes, hemiepiphytes and nomadic vines, including information on their cover, abundance, frequency and biomass. Most records (97%) correspond to sampled host trees, 76% of them aggregated in forest plots. The data is stored in a TURBOVEG database using the most up‐to‐date checklist of vascular epiphytes. A total of 18 additional fields were created for the standardization of associated data commonly used in epiphyte ecology (e.g. by considering different sampling methods). EpIG‐DB currently covers six major biomes across the whole latitudinal range of epiphytes in the Neotropics but welcomes data globally. This novel database provides, for the first time, unique biodiversity data on epiphytes for the Neotropics and unified guidelines for future collection of epiphyte data. EpIG‐DB will allow exploration of new ways to study the community ecology and biogeography of vascular epiphytes.

中文翻译：

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EpIG-DB：新热带地区附生植物维管束数据库

血管附生植物是热带和亚热带森林中生物多样性的一个多样化且显着的组成部分。然而，与根生植物相比，附生植物组合的模式和驱动因素研究较少。当前有关附生植物多样性模式的知识主要来自本地研究或植物学调查，但尚未整合此信息以更好地了解大规模分布模式。EpIG-DB是大陆范围内第一个有关附生植物组合的数据库，它是来自新热带地区已出版和未出版清单数据的详尽汇编。EpIG-DB的当前版本包含来自3,005种的463,196个单独的附生植物，它们是从总共18,148个相关物（宿主树和“林下”地块）中收集的。EpIG-DB报告了“真正”的附生植物，半附生植物和游牧藤蔓的发生，包括有关其覆盖度，丰度，频率和生物量的信息。大多数记录（97％）对应于采样的寄主树，其中76％聚集在林区中。数据使用最新的血管附生植物核对表存储在TURBOVEG数据库中。共创建了18个其他字段，用于标准化附生生态学中常用的相关数据（例如，通过考虑不同的采样方法）。EpIG-DB目前涵盖新热带地区附生植物整个纬度范围内的六个主要生物群落，但欢迎全球数据。这个新颖的数据库首次为新热带地区提供了有关附生植物的独特生物多样性数据，并为今后收集附生植物数据提供了统一指南。