Increasing liana abundance and biomass in tropical forests: emerging patterns and putative mechanisms

• Published in: Ecology letters Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 397 - 406
• Main Authors: Schnitzer, Stefan A, Bongers, Frans
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2011; Blackwell
• Subjects: aboveground biomass; Abundance; Africa; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; barro-colorado island; below-ground competition; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; Carbon Cycle; Carbon dioxide; Carbon sequestration; classification; CO2; Community composition; community structure; disturbance; drought; eastern amazonia; Ecosystem; elevated atmospheric co2; Forestry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; future climate-change; General aspects; General forest ecology; Generalities. Production, biomass. Quality of wood and forest products. General forest ecology; global change; growth & development; ivy toxicodendron radicans; Land use; land use change; liana increases; lianas; Magnoliopsida; Magnoliopsida - classification; Magnoliopsida - growth & development; monitoring; Plant diversity; Population Density; rain-forest; Rainforests; structural changes; temperate forests; toxicity responses; Trees; Tropical Climate; Tropical environments; Tropical forests; tropics; Africa; Modification; disturbance; Carbon dioxide; Tropical forest; Biomass; Perturbation; CO; structural changes; Land use; Dynamical climatology; Climate change; liana increases; Global change; Liana; tropical forests; Planetary scale; land use change; Drought
• ISSN: 1461-023X; 1461-0248; 1461-0248
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01590.x

Ecology Letters (2011) 14: 397-406 ABSTRACT: Tropical forests are experiencing large-scale structural changes, the most apparent of which may be the increase in liana (woody vine) abundance and biomass. Lianas permeate most lowland tropical forests, where they can have a huge effect on tree diversity, recruitment, growth and survival, which, in turn, can alter tree community composition, carbon storage and carbon, nutrient and water fluxes. Consequently, increasing liana abundance and biomass have potentially profound ramifications for tropical forest composition and functioning. Currently, eight studies support the pattern of increasing liana abundance and biomass in American tropical and subtropical forests, whereas two studies, both from Africa, do not. The putative mechanisms to explain increasing lianas include increasing evapotranspirative demand, increasing forest disturbance and turnover, changes in land use and fragmentation and elevated atmospheric CO₂. Each of these mechanisms probably contributes to the observed patterns of increasing liana abundance and biomass, and the mechanisms are likely to be interrelated and synergistic. To determine whether liana increases are occurring throughout the tropics and to determine the mechanisms responsible for the observed patterns, a widespread network of large-scale, long-term monitoring plots combined with observational and manipulative studies that more directly investigate the putative mechanisms are essential.