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The suspended soils, associated with epiphytic plants in tropical forest canopies, have a very special type of biological cycle, morphological organization and ecological functional role. We have studies out whether the chemical composition and hydrological parameters depend significantly on the genesis of suspended soil, or they represent a single soil phenomenon with a certain supposed ecosystem function. Their maximum water holding capacity and field moisture capacity reaches hundreds and even thousands of percent which cannot but lead to mesophilization of the microclimate of the near-stem environments. The high content of nutrients in tropical suspended soils is enormously high compared to forest soils of other climatic zones and should be noted as their most important attributive characteristic. This once again confirms the hypothesis that the essence of epiphytic soil formation was and is that the biotic cycle breaks away from the ground and moves evolutionarily into the middle and upper tiers of the tropical rainforest ecosystem. Tree trunks in this context represent vertically and subhorizontally oriented phase interfaces, similar to parent materials, and epiphytic soils are analogues of peat accumulations with extremely high water-holding capacity, which is of extremely important environmental significance.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages15
JournalBotanica Pacifica
DOIs
StateE-pub ahead of print - 19 Dec 2024

    Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science(all)

ID: 132990043