TY - JOUR
T1 - Local canopy disturbance as an explanation for long-term increases in liana abundance
AU - Schnitzer, Stefan A.
AU - DeFilippis, David M.
AU - Visser, Marco
AU - Estrada-Villegas, Sergio
AU - Rivera-Camaña, Rigoberto
AU - Bernal, Boris
AU - Peréz, Salomé
AU - Valdéz, Abelino
AU - Valdéz, Seberino
AU - Aguilar, Antonio
AU - Dalling, James W.
AU - Broadbent, Eben N.
AU - Almeyda Zambrano, Angelica M.
AU - Hubbell, Stephen P.
AU - Garcia-Leon, Maria
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank B. Ramirez, A. Hernandez, E. Bellido, Y. Guerro, E. Perez, O. Valdés, J. Rodriguez and Y. Rodriguez for their contributions to the liana census. They thank E.G. Leigh, S.J. Wright, S. Mangan, J. LaManna, G. van der Heijden and E. Gora for helpful comments. This work was made possible by generous financial support from the US National Science Foundation through grants NSF DEB‐0613666 and IOS‐1558093 (to SAS). A Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF grant # 1452781) supported DMD. The 2009 LiDAR measurements were funded by NSF DEB‐0939907 (to JWD). They thank the McIntire‐Stennis program of the USDA for support towards the development and maintenance of the GatorEye UFL system. Logistic support was provided by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Funding Information:
The authors thank B. Ramirez, A. Hernandez, E. Bellido, Y. Guerro, E. Perez, O. Vald?s, J. Rodriguez and Y. Rodriguez for their contributions to the liana census. They thank E.G. Leigh, S.J. Wright, S. Mangan, J. LaManna, G. van der Heijden and E. Gora for helpful comments. This work was made possible by generous financial support from the US National Science Foundation through grants NSF DEB-0613666 and IOS-1558093 (to SAS). A Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF grant # 1452781) supported DMD. The 2009 LiDAR measurements were funded by NSF DEB-0939907 (to JWD). They thank the McIntire-Stennis program of the USDA for support towards the development and maintenance of the GatorEye UFL system. Logistic support was provided by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Canopy disturbance explains liana abundance and distribution within tropical forests and thus may also explain the widespread pattern of increasing liana abundance; however, this hypothesis remains untested. We used a 10-year study (2007–2017) of 117,100 rooted lianas in an old-growth Panamanian forest to test whether local canopy disturbance explains increasing liana abundance. We found that liana density increased 29.2% and basal area 12.5%. The vast majority of these increases were associated with clonal stem proliferation following canopy disturbance, particularly in liana-dense, low-canopy gaps, which had far greater liana increases than did undisturbed forest. Lianas may be ecological niche constructors, arresting tree regeneration in gaps and thus creating a high-light environment that favours sustained liana proliferation. Our findings demonstrate that liana abundance is increasing rapidly and their ability to proliferate via copious clonal stem production in canopy gaps explains much of their increase in this and possibly other tropical forests.
AB - Canopy disturbance explains liana abundance and distribution within tropical forests and thus may also explain the widespread pattern of increasing liana abundance; however, this hypothesis remains untested. We used a 10-year study (2007–2017) of 117,100 rooted lianas in an old-growth Panamanian forest to test whether local canopy disturbance explains increasing liana abundance. We found that liana density increased 29.2% and basal area 12.5%. The vast majority of these increases were associated with clonal stem proliferation following canopy disturbance, particularly in liana-dense, low-canopy gaps, which had far greater liana increases than did undisturbed forest. Lianas may be ecological niche constructors, arresting tree regeneration in gaps and thus creating a high-light environment that favours sustained liana proliferation. Our findings demonstrate that liana abundance is increasing rapidly and their ability to proliferate via copious clonal stem production in canopy gaps explains much of their increase in this and possibly other tropical forests.
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U2 - 10.1111/ele.13881
DO - 10.1111/ele.13881
M3 - Letter
C2 - 34536250
AN - SCOPUS:85115069262
SN - 1461-023X
VL - 24
SP - 2635
EP - 2647
JO - Ecology Letters
JF - Ecology Letters
IS - 12
ER -