Although many ecological properties of species respond to climate change, their evolutionary responses are poorly understood. Here, we use data from long-term demographic studies to predict evolutionary responses of three herbaceous perennial orchid species, Cypripedium parviflorum, C. candidum and Ophrys sphegodes, to predicted climate changes in the habitats they occupy. We focus on the evolution of sprouting probability, because all three species exhibit long-term vegetative dormancy, i.e. individual plants may not emerge above-ground, potentially for several consecutive years.

Conservation of biodiversity in managed landscapes is of critical importance due to the rapid degradation and loss of primary habitat in the tropics. Soppinabetta forests are farmer-managed, fragmented evergreen forests of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India. We hypothesized that these forests have immense importance in conservation of epiphytic orchid flora, although management intensity may differentially affect the diversity. Orchid diversity of
the Soppinabetta forests of two degrees of management (sustained Soppinabetta, N = 11; degraded Soppinabetta,

Of the diverse flora and fauna in an ecosystem, epiphytes in general and orchids in particular have a vital role to play in mutualism. By virtue of their sensitivity to the changes in the climate they provide a forewarning about the impending damages due to these changes and act as bioindicators. Epiphytes constitute ten per cent of the higher plants in tropical forest ecosystem.