Tropical Hardwood Hammock Food Web

Still the strangler fig fills an important niche and food source to many tropical forest hammock creatures.

Tropical hardwood hammock food web.

Strangler fig this plant starts out as an epiphyte and attaches to a host tree usually a cabbage palm. The strangler fig sends out roots that tangle around the host and eventually strangles it. Subject to thin soils and a tropical climate hardwood hammocks form a dense canopy with a tangle of shrubs and. There are very few animals that live exclusively in hammocks but many animals take advantage of the relatively cool interior and slightly higher elevation provided by hammocks.

Sarah fischer matthew sorrells brett keeter. Vertebrate animal species typically found in tropical hardwood hammocks are found in table 1. Tropical hardwood hammocks provide food cover roosting and nesting sites to a wide variety of wildlife species. The tropical hardwood hammock is an ecosystem consisting of broad leafed trees shrubs and vines nearly all of which are native to the west indies with live oak quercus virginiana being the only significant temperate species.

Tropical hardwood hammocks are threatened by invasive exotic species taking of native species by collectors water level changes conversion to agriculture and development.