Resumen

VALVERDE, Teresa  y  BERNAL, Rocío. Is there demographic asynchrony among local populations of Tillandsia recurvata?: Evidence of its metapopulation functioning. Bol. Soc. Bot. Méx [online]. 2010, n.86, pp.23-36. ISSN 0366-2128.

We studied the demography of nine populations of the epiphyte Tillandsia recurvata established on Prosopis laevigata in the Tehuacán region, in the Mexican state of Puebla, to evaluate whether they show demographic asynchrony, a basic condition for metapopulation persistence. These populations differed in the size of the occupied tree (volume of tree crown) and in their number of individuals. Two Lefkovitch matrices were built per population, one for 2001-2 and another one for 2002-3. Population structured differed between populations: those established on small trees had a higher seedling proportion whereas those on larger trees were dominated by adults. The projected λ values varied between populations and years, but no pattern was found to this variation, with the exception that there was a positive correlation between λ and population size for 2002-3. Population demography was asynchronous between populations, thus favouring metapopulation persistence.

Palabras llave : demographic variation; epiphytes; metapopulations; population projection matrices; Tehuacan Valley.