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Gora EM, DeFillipis DM, Schnitzer SA. Patterns and inferred causes of liana mortality in a tropical forest. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20240808. [PMID: 38889791 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Lianas are major contributors to tropical forest dynamics, yet we know little about their mortality. Using overlapping censuses of the lianas and trees across a 50 ha stand of moist tropical forest, we contrasted community-wide patterns of liana mortality with relatively well-studied patterns of tree mortality to quantify patterns of liana death and identify contributing factors. Liana mortality rates were 172% higher than tree mortality rates, but species-level mortality rates of lianas were similar to trees with 'fast' life-history strategies and both growth forms exhibited similar spatial and size-dependent patterns. The mortality rates of liana saplings (<2.1 cm in diameter), which represent about 50% of liana individuals, decreased with increasing disturbance severity and remained consistently low during post-disturbance stand thinning. In contrast, larger liana individuals and trees of all sizes had elevated mortality rates in response to disturbance and their mortality rates decreased over time since disturbance. Within undisturbed forest patches, liana mortality rates increased with increasing soil fertility in a manner similar to trees. The distinct responses of liana saplings to disturbance appeared to distinguish liana mortality from that of trees, whereas similarities in their patterns of death suggest that there are common drivers of woody plant mortality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan M Gora
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa , Ancón, Panama
- Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies , Millbrook, NY, USA
| | | | - Stefan A Schnitzer
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa , Ancón, Panama
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette , Milwaukee, WI, USA
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Dossa GGO, Li HL, Pan B, Ling TC, Schaefer DA, Roeder M, Njoroge DM, Zuo J, Song L, Ofosu-Bamfo B, Schnitzer SA, Harrison RD, Bongers F, Zhang JL, Cao KF, Powers JS, Fan ZX, Chen YJ, Corlett RT, Zotz G, Oleksyn J, Wyka TP, Codjia JEI, Cornelissen JHC. Effects of lianas on forest biogeochemistry during their lives and afterlives. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2024; 30:e17274. [PMID: 38605677 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.17274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2023] [Revised: 03/02/2024] [Accepted: 03/12/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024]
Abstract
Climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances are increasing liana abundance and biomass in many tropical and subtropical forests. While the effects of living lianas on species diversity, ecosystem carbon, and nutrient dynamics are receiving increasing attention, the role of dead lianas in forest ecosystems has been little studied and is poorly understood. Trees and lianas coexist as the major woody components of forests worldwide, but they have very different ecological strategies, with lianas relying on trees for mechanical support. Consequently, trees and lianas have evolved highly divergent stem, leaf, and root traits. Here we show that this trait divergence is likely to persist after death, into the afterlives of these organs, leading to divergent effects on forest biogeochemistry. We introduce a conceptual framework combining horizontal, vertical, and time dimensions for the effects of liana proliferation and liana tissue decomposition on ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling. We propose a series of empirical studies comparing traits between lianas and trees to answer questions concerning the influence of trait afterlives on the decomposability of liana and tree organs. Such studies will increase our understanding of the contribution of lianas to terrestrial biogeochemical cycling, and help predict the effects of their increasing abundance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gbadamassi G O Dossa
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
| | - Hong-Lin Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
- College of Biological and Chemical Science, Puer University, Puer, Yunnan, China
| | - Bo Pan
- Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan, China
| | - Tial C Ling
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
| | - Douglas A Schaefer
- Centre for Mountain Futures, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science, Kunming, Yunnan, China
| | - Mareike Roeder
- Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan, China
- Department of Wetland Ecology, Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - KIT, Rastatt, Germany
| | - Denis M Njoroge
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Aquatic and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
| | - Juan Zuo
- CAS Key Laboratory of Aquatic and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
| | - Liang Song
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
| | - Bismark Ofosu-Bamfo
- Department of Biological Science, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
| | - Stefan A Schnitzer
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | | | - Frans Bongers
- Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Jiao-Lin Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
| | - Kun-Fang Cao
- Ecophysiology and Evolution Group, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, and College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, China
| | - Jennifer S Powers
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Ze-Xin Fan
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
| | - Ya-Jun Chen
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
| | - Richard T Corlett
- Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan, China
| | - Gerhard Zotz
- Functional Ecology of Plants, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Republic of Panama
| | - Jacek Oleksyn
- Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Dendrology, Kórnik, Poland
| | - Tomasz P Wyka
- General Botany Laboratory, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
| | - Jean Evans Israel Codjia
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
- Research Unit Tropical Mycology and Plants-Soil Fungi Interactions, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Parakou, Parakou, BP, Benin
| | - Johannes H C Cornelissen
- Systems Ecology, Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment (A-LIFE), Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Schnitzer SA, DeFilippis DM, Aguilar A, Bernal B, Peréz S, Valdés A, Valdés S, Bernal F, Mendoza A, Castro B, Garcia-Leon M. Maximum stem diameter predicts liana population demography. Ecology 2023; 104:e4163. [PMID: 37679881 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2023] [Revised: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 07/26/2023] [Indexed: 09/09/2023]
Abstract
Determining population demographic rates is fundamental to understanding differences in species' life-history strategies and their capacity to coexist. Calculating demographic rates, however, is challenging and requires long-term, large-scale censuses. Body size may serve as a simple predictor of demographic rate; can it act as a proxy for demographic rate when those data are unavailable? We tested the hypothesis that maximum body size predicts species' demographic rate using repeated censuses of the 77 most common liana species on the Barro Colorado Island, Panama (BCI) 50-ha plot. We found that maximum stem diameter does predict species' population turnover and demography. We also found that lianas on BCI can grow to the enormous diameter of 635 mm, indicating that they can store large amounts of carbon and compete intensely with tropical canopy trees. This study is the first to show that maximum stem diameter can predict plant species' demographic rates and that lianas can attain extremely large diameters. Understanding liana demography is particularly timely because lianas are increasing rapidly in many tropical forests, yet their species-level population dynamics remain chronically understudied. Determining per-species maximum liana diameters in additional forests will enable systematic comparative analyses of liana demography and potential influence across forest types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan A Schnitzer
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama
| | - David M DeFilippis
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Antonio Aguilar
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Boris Bernal
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Salomé Peréz
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Abelino Valdés
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Seberino Valdés
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Fidedigna Bernal
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Adrián Mendoza
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Biancolini Castro
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Maria Garcia-Leon
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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Finlayson C, Roopsind A, Griscom BW, Edwards DP, Freckleton RP. Removing climbers more than doubles tree growth and biomass in degraded tropical forests. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e8758. [PMID: 35356565 PMCID: PMC8948070 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2021] [Revised: 02/03/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Huge areas of tropical forests are degraded, reducing their biodiversity, carbon, and timber value. The recovery of these degraded forests can be significantly inhibited by climbing plants such as lianas. Removal of super‐abundant climbers thus represents a restoration action with huge potential for application across the tropics. While experimental studies largely report positive impacts of climber removal on tree growth and biomass accumulation, the efficacy of climber removal varies widely, with high uncertainty as to where and how to apply the technique. Using meta‐analytic techniques, we synthesize results from 26 studies to quantify the efficacy of climber removal for promoting tree growth and biomass accumulation. We find that climber removal increases tree growth by 156% and biomass accumulation by 209% compared to untreated forest, and that efficacy remains for at least 19 years. Extrapolating from these results, climber removal could sequester an additional 32 Gigatons of CO2 over 10 years, at low cost, across regrowth, and production forests. Our analysis also revealed that climber removal studies are concentrated in the Neotropics (N = 22), relative to Africa (N = 2) and Asia (N = 2), preventing our study from assessing the influence of region on removal efficacy. While we found some evidence that enhancement of tree growth and AGB accumulation varies across disturbance context and removal method, but not across climate, the number and geographical distribution of studies limits the strength of these conclusions. Climber removal could contribute significantly to reducing global carbon emissions and enhancing the timber and biomass stocks of degraded forests, ultimately protecting them from conversion. However, we urgently need to assess the efficacy of removal outside the Neotropics, and consider the potential negative consequences of climber removal under drought conditions and for biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Finlayson
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology School of Biosciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
| | - Anand Roopsind
- Center for Natural Climate Solutions Conservation International Arlington Virginia USA
| | - Bronson W. Griscom
- Center for Natural Climate Solutions Conservation International Arlington Virginia USA
| | - David P. Edwards
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology School of Biosciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
| | - Robert P. Freckleton
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology School of Biosciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
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Schnitzer SA, DeFilippis DM, Visser M, Estrada-Villegas S, Rivera-Camaña R, Bernal B, Peréz S, Valdéz A, Valdéz S, Aguilar A, Dalling JW, Broadbent EN, Almeyda Zambrano AM, Hubbell SP, Garcia-Leon M. Local canopy disturbance as an explanation for long-term increases in liana abundance. Ecol Lett 2021; 24:2635-2647. [PMID: 34536250 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2021] [Revised: 06/27/2021] [Accepted: 08/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
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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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan A Schnitzer
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.,Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panamá
| | - David M DeFilippis
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Marco Visser
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Sergio Estrada-Villegas
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.,Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panamá.,Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | | | - Boris Bernal
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Salomé Peréz
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Abelino Valdéz
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Seberino Valdéz
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Antonio Aguilar
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
| | - James W Dalling
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panamá.,Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Eben N Broadbent
- School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
| | | | - Stephen P Hubbell
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panamá.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Maria Garcia-Leon
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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Sherry TW. Sensitivity of Tropical Insectivorous Birds to the Anthropocene: A Review of Multiple Mechanisms and Conservation Implications. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.662873] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Epigraph: “The house is burning. We do not need a thermometer. We need a fire hose.” (P. 102, Janzen and Hallwachs, 2019). Insectivorous birds are declining widely, and for diverse reasons. Tropical insectivorous birds, more than 60% of all tropical birds, are particularly sensitive to human disturbances including habitat loss and fragmentation, intensive agriculture and pesticide use, and climate change; and the mechanisms are incompletely understood. This review addresses multiple, complementary and sometimes synergistic explanations for tropical insectivore declines, by categorizing explanations into ultimate vs. proximate, and direct versus indirect. Ultimate explanations are diverse human Anthropocene activities and the evolutionary history of these birds. This evolutionary history, synthesized by the Biotic Challenge Hypothesis (BCH), explains tropical insectivorous birds' vulnerabilities to many proximate threats as a function of both these birds' evolutionary feeding specialization and poor dispersal capacity. These traits were favored evolutionarily by both the diversity of insectivorous clades competing intensely for prey and co-evolution with arthropods over long evolutionary time periods. More proximate, ecological threats include bottom-up forces like declining insect populations, top-down forces like meso-predator increases, plus the Anthropocene activities underlying these factors, especially habitat loss and fragmentation, agricultural intensification, and climate change. All these conditions peak in the lowland, mainland Neotropics, where insectivorous bird declines have been repeatedly documented, but also occur in other tropical locales and continents. This multiplicity of interacting evolutionary and ecological factors informs conservation implications and recommendations for tropical insectivorous birds: (1) Why they are so sensitive to global change phenomena is no longer enigmatic, (2) distinguishing ultimate versus proximate stressors matters, (3) evolutionary life-histories predispose these birds to be particularly sensitive to the Anthropocene, (4) tropical regions and continents vary with respect to these birds' ecological sensitivity, (5) biodiversity concepts need stronger incorporation of species' evolutionary histories, (6) protecting these birds will require more, larger reserves for multiple reasons, and (7) these birds have greater value than generally recognized.
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Schnitzer SA, Estrada-Villegas S, Wright SJ. The response of lianas to 20 yr of nutrient addition in a Panamanian forest. Ecology 2020; 101:e03190. [PMID: 32893876 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2020] [Revised: 07/28/2020] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
Over the past two decades, liana density and basal area have been increasing in many tropical forests, which has profound consequences for forest diversity and functioning. One hypothesis to explain increasing lianas is elevated nutrient deposition in tropical forests resulting from fossil fuels, agricultural fertilizer, and biomass burning. We tested this hypothesis by surveying all lianas ≥1 cm in diameter (n = 3,967) in 32 plots in a fully factorial nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) addition experiment in a mature tropical forest in central Panama. We conducted the nutrient-addition experiment from 1998 until present and we first censused lianas in 2013 and then again in 2018. After 20 yr of nutrient addition (1998-2018), liana density, basal area, and rarefied species richness did not differ significantly among any of the nutrient-addition and control treatments. Moreover, nutrient addition in the most recent 5 yr of the experiment did not affect liana relative growth, recruitment, or mortality rates. From 2013 until 2018, liana density, basal area, and species richness increased annually by 1.6%, 1.4%, and 2.4%, respectively. Nutrient addition did not influence these increases. Our findings indicate that nutrient deposition does not explain increasing lianas in this tropical forest. Instead, increases in tree mortality and disturbance, atmospheric carbon dioxide, drought frequency and severity, and hunting pressure may be more likely explanations for the increase in lianas in tropical forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan A Schnitzer
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53201, USA.,Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Republic of Panama
| | - Sergio Estrada-Villegas
- Department of Biological Sciences, Marquette University, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53201, USA.,Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Republic of Panama
| | - S Joseph Wright
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Republic of Panama
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