Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Format of Original
5 p.
Publication Date
10-2015
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Source Publication
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Source ISSN
0027-8424
Original Item ID
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1504869112; PubMed Central, PMCID: PMC4629347
Abstract
Tropical forests store vast quantities of carbon, account for one-third of the carbon fixed by photosynthesis, and are a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Recent evidence suggests that competition between lianas (woody vines) and trees may reduce forest-wide carbon uptake; however, estimates of the impact of lianas on carbon dynamics of tropical forests are crucially lacking. Here we used a large-scale liana removal experiment and found that, at 3 y after liana removal, lianas reduced net above-ground carbon uptake (growth and recruitment minus mortality) by ∼76% per year, mostly by reducing tree growth. The loss of carbon uptake due to liana-induced mortality was four times greater in the control plots in which lianas were present, but high variation among plots prevented a significant difference among the treatments. Lianas altered how aboveground carbon was stored. In forests where lianas were present, the partitioning of forest aboveground net primary production was dominated by leaves (53.2%, compared with 39.2% in liana-free forests) at the expense of woody stems (from 28.9%, compared with 43.9%), resulting in a more rapid return of fixed carbon to the atmosphere. After 3 y of experimental liana removal, our results clearly demonstrate large differences in carbon cycling between forests with and without lianas. Combined with the recently reported increases in liana abundance, these results indicate that lianas are an important and increasing agent of change in the carbon dynamics of tropical forests.
Recommended Citation
van der Heijden, Geertje M. F.; Powers, Jennifer S.; and Schnitzer, Stefan A., "Lianas Reduce Carbon Accumulation and Storage in Tropical Forests" (2015). Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications. 507.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/bio_fac/507
Comments
Accepted version. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, No. 43 (October 2015): 13267–13271. DOI. © 2015 National Academy of Sciences. Used with permission.