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Review
. 2019 May 29;9(12):7360-7372.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.5296. eCollection 2019 Jun.

Ecosystem services provided by bromeliad plants: A systematic review

Geraldine Ladino  1 , Fabiola Ospina-Bautista  1 , Jaime Estévez Varón  1 , Lucie Jerabkova  2 , Pavel Kratina  3
Affiliations
Review

Ecosystem services provided by bromeliad plants: A systematic review

Geraldine Ladino et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

The unprecedented loss of biological diversity has negative impacts on ecosystems and the associated benefits which they provide to humans. Bromeliads have high diversity throughout the Neotropics, but they have been negatively affected by habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, invasive species, and commercialization for ornamental purpose. These plants provide direct benefits to the human society, and they also form microecosystems in which accumulated water and nutrients support the communities of aquatic and terrestrial species, thus maintaining local diversity. We performed a systematic review of the contribution of bromeliads to ecosystem services across their native geographical distribution. We showed that bromeliads provide a range of ecosystem services such as maintenance of biodiversity, community structure, nutrient cycling, and the provisioning of food and water. Moreover, bromeliads can regulate the spread of diseases, and water and carbon cycling, and they have the potential to become important sources of chemical and pharmaceutical products. The majority of this research was performed in Brazil, but future research from other Neotropical countries with a high diversity of bromeliads would fill the current knowledge gaps and increase the generality of these findings. This systematic review identified that future research should focus on provisioning, regulating, and cultural services that have been currently overlooked. This would enhance our understanding of how bromeliad diversity contributes to human welfare, and the negative consequences that loss of bromeliad plants can have on communities of other species and the healthy functioning of the entire ecosystems.

Keywords: biodiversity; bromeliad plants; climate regulation; disease; ecosystem services; microecosystems; neotropics; pharmaceutical potential; water storage.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The number of peer‐reviewed publications in Scopus database that investigated ecosystem services provided by bromeliad plants between 1981 and 2017 has increased substantially for supporting services, but it has remained understudied for the three other types of ecosystem services. A total of 311 papers were systematically evaluated
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total number of peer‐reviewed studies of cultural, provisioning, regulating, and supporting services provided by bromeliad plants in each Neotropical country (Search in Scopus database between 1981 and 2017)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Relative contribution of peer‐reviewed papers that investigated the four main categories of ecosystem services provided by bromeliads. Different colors indicate specific types (subdivision) of each of the four main categories
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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