The impact of lianas on 10 years of tree growth and mortality on Barro Colorado Island, Panama

Ingwell, Laura L.; Wright, S. Joseph; Becklund, Kristen K.; Hubbell, Stephen P.; Schnitzer, Stefan A.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2010.01676.x

Cited by 234 publications

(371 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…For example, in a comprehensive survey of 58 forests from South and Central America, liana biomass nearly doubled relative to tree biomass over a 20-year period. 3 On Barro Colorado Island, Panama, liana productivity increased 40% relative to tree productivity over a 17-year period, 4 the proportion of trees infested by lianas doubled over the past 40 years, 5 and the number of trees that were severely infested by lianas increased by 65% over a recent 11-year period. 5 In central Amazonia, liana seedling recruitment increased by as much as 500% over a six-year period in the 1990s.…”

Section: Evidence For Neotropical Liana Increasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 On Barro Colorado Island, Panama, liana productivity increased 40% relative to tree productivity over a 17-year period, 4 the proportion of trees infested by lianas doubled over the past 40 years, 5 and the number of trees that were severely infested by lianas increased by 65% over a recent 11-year period. 5 In central Amazonia, liana seedling recruitment increased by as much as 500% over a six-year period in the 1990s. 6 Combined, these eight studies provide strong support for the pattern of rapid increases in the importance of lianas in neotropical forests.…”

Section: Evidence For Neotropical Liana Increasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Community and ecosystem ramifications of increasing lianas in neotropical forests

Schnitzer

Bongers

Wright

2011

Plant Signaling & Behavior

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L ianas (woody vines) are increasing in neotropical forests, representing one of the first large-scale structural changes documented for these important ecosystems. The potential ramifications of increasing lianas are huge, as lianas alter both tropical forest diversity and ecosystem functioning. At the community level, lianas affect tree species co-existence and diversity by competing more intensely with some tree species than others, and thus will likely alter tree species composition. At the ecosystem level, lianas affect forest carbon and nutrient storage and fluxes. A decrease in forest carbon storage and sequestration may be the most important ramification of liana increases. Lianas reduce tree growth and increase tree mortality-thus reducing forest-level carbon storage. The increase in lianas, which have much less wood than trees, compensates only partially for the amount of carbon lost in the displaced trees. Because tropical forests contribute approximately one-third of global terrestrial carbon stocks and net primary productivity, the effect of increasing lianas for tropical forest carbon cycles may have serious repercussions at the global scale.Tropical forests contain most of the earth's plant species and contribute more to carbon storage in the form of above ground biomass than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Temperate and boreal forests are changing rapidly in response to global anthropogenic drivers. Similar large-scale changes are now being detected in tropical forests. One of the largest contemporary changes

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Section: Evidence For Neotropical Liana Increasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evidence For Neotropical Liana Increasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community and ecosystem ramifications of increasing lianas in neotropical forests

Schnitzer

Bongers

Wright

2011

Plant Signaling & Behavior

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“…Climbing plants are important components of forests dynamics, contributing with biomass and plant diversity (Schnitzer & Bongers 2011), affecting mortality and growth of trees (Ingwell et al 2010), collaborating with treefall gaps formation and preventing trees regeneration on it (Schnitzer & Carson 2010). Climbing species show a diversity of climbing mechanisms/strategies (Hegarty & Caballé 1991) to reach the best productive position, with full access to sunlight where they reproduce and spread through other trees canopies (Campbell & Newbery 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Checklist of climbing plants in an Araucaria forest of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

Seger

Hartz

2014

Biota Neotrop.

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Climbing plants are remarkable components of forests, highly contributing for the diversity and dynamics of communities. Studies focusing on climbing plants are scarce and for many vegetation types little is known about climbing species composition and their traits relevant for dispersal and establishment. The focus of this study is to provide the first floristic inventory of climbing plants in an Araucaria forest of Brazil, describing the dispersal syndromes and climbing mechanisms of species and comparing these traits and species composition patterns with other study sites in Southern Brazil. We found 104 taxa belonging to 33 families, with Asteraceae (22 spp.) and Apocynaceae (14 spp.) being the richest families. Among climbing mechanisms, stem twiner (50 spp.) is the most common, followed by tendril (20 spp.) and scrambler (12 spp.), while in relation to the dispersal syndromes, anemochoric species (65 spp.) are the most relevant followed by endozoochoric (28 spp.). Three new species registries were found for Rio Grande do Sul State expanding their occurrence range towards South Brazil. The comparison of climbers' survey sites showed two sharp groups in relation to species composition and traits proportion, Seasonal and Araucaria/Atlantic forest sites, but with no difference of traits frequency between sites. There is a predominance of stem twiners species in all sites, but the relative difference for tendril species increases in Araucaria and Atlantic forest sites. The Asteraceae and Apocynaceae families were the most relevant, contrasting to Seasonal forests of Southeast Brazil. Interesting patterns can be achieved with a more detailed classification of climbing mechanisms and the results found in this study contributes to enhance the knowledge on climbers' traits and diversity in South Brazil. Keywords: Lianas, Vines, Climbing mechanisms, Dispersal syndromes, Floristic of climbers. SEGER

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“…The increase in lianas, combined with the observations that lianas can reduce individual tree growth by up to 84% (11) and increase tree mortality risk twofold to threefold (4,7), has made it pertinent to investigate the effect of lianas on forest-level biomass dynamics to better predict the effect of increasing liana abundance on tropical forests.…”

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Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests

Heijden

Powers

Schnitzer

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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161

136

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Tropical forests store vast quantities of carbon, account for onethird of the carbon fixed by photosynthesis, and are a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Recent evidence suggests that competition between lianas (woody vines) and trees may reduce forest-wide carbon uptake; however, estimates of the impact of lianas on carbon dynamics of tropical forests are crucially lacking. Here we used a large-scale liana removal experiment and found that, at 3 y after liana removal, lianas reduced net above-ground carbon uptake (growth and recruitment minus mortality) by ∼76% per year, mostly by reducing tree growth. The loss of carbon uptake due to lianainduced mortality was four times greater in the control plots in which lianas were present, but high variation among plots prevented a significant difference among the treatments. Lianas altered how aboveground carbon was stored. In forests where lianas were present, the partitioning of forest aboveground net primary production was dominated by leaves (53.2%, compared with 39.2% in liana-free forests) at the expense of woody stems (from 28.9%, compared with 43.9%), resulting in a more rapid return of fixed carbon to the atmosphere. After 3 y of experimental liana removal, our results clearly demonstrate large differences in carbon cycling between forests with and without lianas. Combined with the recently reported increases in liana abundance, these results indicate that lianas are an important and increasing agent of change in the carbon dynamics of tropical forests.L ianas (woody vines) are a key component of lowland tropical forests, commonly contributing more than 25% of the woody stems and species and competing intensely with trees. By relying on the structural investment of trees for support, lianas are able to allocate a higher proportion of biomass than trees into the production of foliage rather than carbon-dense stems (1). Thus, lianas themselves contribute relatively little to forest-level biomass (1, 2). The ecological effects of lianas may be more extensive than their relatively modest contribution to biomass suggests, however. Liana-tree competition can be far more intense than tree-tree competition (3), substantially reducing tree growth (2, 4), fecundity (5, 6), and survival (4, 7). Furthermore, lianas may constrain net above-ground forest primary productivity, i.e., the total amount of carbon fixed into both canopy material (leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds) and woody stems (8), by failing to compensate for the biomass that they displace in trees (1, 2).Recent evidence indicates that lianas are now increasing in abundance and biomass in tropical forests, possibly being driven by a combination of increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration, changing climatic conditions, and seasonal droughts, as well as increased natural and anthropogenic disturbances (9, 10). The increase in lianas, combined with the observations that lianas can reduce individual tree growth by up to 84% (11) and increase tree mortality risk twofold to threefold (4, 7), has made it pertin...

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The impact of lianas on 10 years of tree growth and mortality on Barro Colorado Island, Panama

Cited by 234 publications

References 56 publications

Community and ecosystem ramifications of increasing lianas in neotropical forests

Community and ecosystem ramifications of increasing lianas in neotropical forests

Checklist of climbing plants in an Araucaria forest of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests

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