Vines May Strangle Carbon Storage in Tropical Forests by Inhibiting Tree Growth

Climbing vines are proving to be a nuisance in tropical forests, as new research indicates they are throwing off the balance of carbon. It has been reported that tropical forests account for about 33.33% of total carbon fixed by photosynthesis. Researchers recently discovered that twisting vines or lianas – increasingly abundant in tropical forests because of climate change and severe seasonal drought – are strangling trees, slowing their growth and causing premature death.

Lianas are affecting a tree’s ability to store carbon.

Co-author Stefan Schnitzer, a professor of biology at Marquette University, said, “This study has far-reaching ramifications”.

“Essentially lianas are reducing the amount of carbon being taken in by the forest and increasing the amount that’s going out”, study lead author Geertje van der Heijden, of The University of Nottingham’s School of Geograohy, said in a press release.

Earth’s expansive oceans create the most efficient system at storing carbon, and preventing it from rising up into our atmosphere where it would linger and increase worldwide temperatures. As they absorb carbon dioxide from the air through their leaves as a key ingredient in synthesizing glucose, they incorporate atmospheric carbon into new cells. These studies, however, focused primarily on tree growth, were restricted to forest gaps or were only observational.

Lianas are thick, woody stems that are found throughout the tropical forests.

The results of the experiment are important to monitor the capacity of forests to serve as storage of carbon.

For the study, researcher cut in eight experimental plots in Panama’s Barro Colorado Nature Monument and monitored the expansion of trees and lianas in the plot as well as the numbers of dead leaves falling from the forest canopy.

The researchers found that by the third year, lianas reduced net biomass accumulation by 76 percent per year in plots where they were present compared to the areas where they had been removed.

By the third yr., lianas decreased internet biomass accumulation by seventy six % per 12 months in plots the place they had been current in comparison with the place they’d been eliminated. This reduced biomass accumulation was also linked to lower tree growth and increased mortality where vines grew around trees. The proportion of biomass in leaves versus wood also differed; forest canopy productivity decreased by 14 percent in liana-free plots while productivity of woody stems rose nearly65 percent. In addition, if the lianas continue to increase in number, then, greater losses of carbon storage can result. “In terms of carbon, lianas may be detrimental; however, lianas provide a wide range of resources for wildlife, such as fruits, seeds and fresh leaves, and by connecting trees together lianas provide aerial pathways that are used by the vast majority of arboreal animals to move through the forest”.