Liana Effects on Carbon Storage and Uptake in Mature and Secondary Tropical Forests

Durán, Sandra M.; Sánchez‐Azofeifa, G. Arturo

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-14592-1_4

Cited by 10 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Lianas store much less C than trees. As lianas spread they outcompete trees by increasing shade in the canopy and can reduce tree growth and increase tree mortality, removing woody tree biomass and reducing aboveground C storage [ Duran and Gianoli , ; Duran and Sanchez‐Azofeifa , ]. A 3 year liana removal experiment in a humid lowland Panamanian forest found an overall increased in woody biomass following liana removal, with woody stems going from 29% to 44% of aboveground biomass when lianas were absent [ van der Heijden et al ., ].…”

Section: Review Of Global Change Effects On Tropical Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global change effects on humid tropical forests: Evidence for biogeochemical and biodiversity shifts at an ecosystem scale

Cusack

Karpman

Ashdown

et al. 2016

Reviews of Geophysics

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Government and international agencies have highlighted the need to focus global change research efforts on tropical ecosystems. However, no recent comprehensive review exists synthesizing humid tropical forest responses across global change factors, including warming, decreased precipitation, carbon dioxide fertilization, nitrogen deposition, and land use/land cover changes. This paper assesses research across spatial and temporal scales for the tropics, including modeling, field, and controlled laboratory studies. The review aims to (1) provide a broad understanding of how a suite of global change factors are altering humid tropical forest ecosystem properties and biogeochemical processes; (2) assess spatial variability in responses to global change factors among humid tropical regions; (3) synthesize results from across humid tropical regions to identify emergent trends in ecosystem responses; (4) identify research and management priorities for the humid tropics in the context of global change. Ecosystem responses covered here include plant growth, carbon storage, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, and disturbance regime shifts. The review demonstrates overall negative effects of global change on all ecosystem properties, with the greatest uncertainty and variability in nutrient cycling responses. Generally, all global change factors reviewed, except for carbon dioxide fertilization, demonstrate great potential to trigger positive feedbacks to global warming via greenhouse gas emissions and biogeophysical changes that cause regional warming. This assessment demonstrates that effects of decreased rainfall and deforestation on tropical forests are relatively well understood, whereas the potential effects of warming, carbon dioxide fertilization, nitrogen deposition, and plant species invasions require more cross-site, mechanistic research to predict tropical forest responses at regional and global scales.

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Section: Review Of Global Change Effects On Tropical Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global change effects on humid tropical forests: Evidence for biogeochemical and biodiversity shifts at an ecosystem scale

Cusack

Karpman

Ashdown

et al. 2016

Reviews of Geophysics

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“…Although our study is limited to one single site in Costa Rica, this is a first step in the development of more comprehensive approaches which take advantage of advanced technology to understand the effects of liana abundance on tropical dry forest structure. The approach presented in this paper presents important contributions to efforts directed at estimating the potential effects of lianas on forest carbon in secondary forests (Durán and Sánchez-Azofeifa, 2015) elements that seem to not be fully considered yet in the tropical literature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These structural changes may have potentially negative effects on carbon stocks since they tend to re-duce carbon storage and uptake in old-growth tropical forests (Durán and Gianoli, 2013;van der Heijden et al, 2015). Liana dynamics in secondary forests and their impact on forest structure, however, are not yet understood despite the fact that secondary forests are becoming increasingly dominant in tropical regions and currently occupy more area than oldgrowth forests (Durán and Sánchez-Azofeifa, 2015;Wright, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As of today, it is still unknown whether lianas can alter successional trajectories in secondary forests resulting from anthropogenic disturbance (Durán and Sánchez-Azofeifa, 2015). Two studies in secondary wet forests have found an increment in liana density in the first 20 years of regeneration (age since land abandonment), with a subsequent decline (DeWalt et al, 2000;Letcher and Chazdon, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This decline of lianas in wet forests appears to be related to reductions in light availability due to greater tree and shrub biomass at later stages of succession (Letcher and Chazdon, 2009). Nonetheless, it remains unclear whether this pattern holds true with more open forest types and whether other factors such as structure, canopy openness, plant density, and the volume of forest stands can also influence the successional trajectories of lianas (Durán and Sánchez-Azofeifa, 2015;Sánchez et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Can terrestrial laser scanners (TLSs) and hemispherical photographs predict tropical dry forest succession with liana abundance?

Sánchez‐Azofeifa

Vega-Araya

et al. 2017

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Tropical dry forests (TDFs) are ecosystems with long drought periods, a mean temperature of 25 • C, a mean annual precipitation that ranges from 900 to 2000 mm, and that possess a high abundance of deciduous species (trees and lianas). What remains of the original extent of TDFs in the Americas remains highly fragmented and at different levels of ecological succession. It is estimated that one of the main fingerprints left by global environmental and climate change in tropical environments is an increase in liana coverage. Lianas are non-structural elements of the forest canopy that eventually kill their host trees. In this paper we evaluate the use of a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) in combination with hemispherical photographs (HPs) to characterize changes in forest structure as a function of ecological succession and liana abundance. We deployed a TLS and HP system in 28 plots throughout secondary forests of different ages and with different levels of liana abundance. Using a canonical correlation analysis (CCA), we addressed how the VEGNET, a terrestrial laser scanner, and HPs could predict TDF structure. Likewise, using univariate analyses of correlations, we show how the liana abundance could affect the prediction of the forest structure. Our results suggest that TLSs and HPs can predict the differences in the forest structure at different successional stages but that these differences disappear as liana abundance increases. Therefore, in well known ecosystems such as the tropical dry forest of Costa Rica, these biases of prediction could be considered as structural effects of liana presence. This research contributes to the understanding of the potential effects of lianas in secondary dry forests and highlights the role of TLSs combined with HPs in monitoring structural changes in secondary TDFs.

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Lianas reduce biomass accumulation in early successional tropical forests

Estrada‐Villegas

Hall

Breugel

et al. 2020

Ecology

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Citation: Estrada-Villegas, S., J. S. Hall, M. van Breugel, and S. A. Schnitzer. 2020. Lianas reduce biomass accumulation in early successional tropical forests. Ecology 101(5):Abstract. Early successional tropical forests could mitigate climate change via rapid accumulation of atmospheric carbon. However, liana (woody vine) abundance and biomass has been increasing in many tropical forests over the past decades, which may slow the speed at which secondary forests accumulate biomass. Lianas decrease biomass accumulation in tropical forests, and may have a particularly strong effect on young forests by stalling tree growth. As forests mature, trees may outgrow or shed lianas, thus escaping some of the negative effects of lianas. Alternatively, lianas may have the strongest effect in older successional forests if the effect of lianas is commensurate with their density, which increases dramatically in the first decades of forest succession. We tested these two hypotheses using a landscape liana-removal experiment in 30 forest stands that ranged from 10 to 35 yr old in Central Panama. We measured tree growth and biomass accumulation in the stands every year from 2014 to 2017. We found that the effect of liana removal on large trees (≥20-cm diameter) decreased with forest age, supporting the hypothesis that lianas have the strongest negative effects on trees, and thus biomass uptake and carbon storage, in very young successional forests. Large trees accumulated more biomass in the absence of lianas in younger forests than in older forests (compared to controls) even after accounting for the effect of canopy completeness and crown illumination, implying that the detrimental effects of lianas go well beyond resource availability and crown health. There was no significant effect of lianas on small trees (1-20-cm diameter), likely because lianas seek light and thus do not deploy their leaves on small trees that are trapped in the forest understory. Our results show that high liana density early in forest succession reduces forest biomass accumulation by negatively impacting large trees, thus decreasing the capacity of young secondary forests to mitigate climate change. Although the negative effects of lianas on forest biomass diminish as forests age, they do not disappear, and thus lianas are an important component of tropical forest carbon budgets throughout succession.

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Liana Effects on Carbon Storage and Uptake in Mature and Secondary Tropical Forests

Cited by 10 publications

References 55 publications

Global change effects on humid tropical forests: Evidence for biogeochemical and biodiversity shifts at an ecosystem scale

Global change effects on humid tropical forests: Evidence for biogeochemical and biodiversity shifts at an ecosystem scale

Can terrestrial laser scanners (TLSs) and hemispherical photographs predict tropical dry forest succession with liana abundance?

Lianas reduce biomass accumulation in early successional tropical forests

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