Are lianas increasing in importance in tropical forests? A 17-year record from Panama

The relative importance of large lianas (woody vines) increased by 100% for stem enumerations conducted during the 1980s and 1990s in widely scattered Neotropical forests. We use three independent types of data to evaluate the hypothesis that lianas have increased in importance in old growth forests...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology (Durham) 2004-02, Vol.85 (2), p.484-489
Main Authors: Wright, S. Joseph, Calderón, Osvaldo, Hernandéz, Andrés, Paton, Steven
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Barro Colorado Island
Biological and medical sciences
Ecological genetics
El Niño
Forest ecology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
leaf litter
leaf production
lianas
Old growth forests
Plant ecology
Plant growth
Plant litter
Plant reproduction
Rainforests
Seed production
Seedlings
seeds
temporal trends
Trees
Tropical forests
Woody vines
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Summary:The relative importance of large lianas (woody vines) increased by 100% for stem enumerations conducted during the 1980s and 1990s in widely scattered Neotropical forests. We use three independent types of data to evaluate the hypothesis that lianas have increased in importance in old growth forests on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Liana leaf litter production and the proportion of forest-wide leaf litter composed of lianas increased between 1986 and 2002. In contrast, liana seed production and liana seedling densities were much more variable through time with particularly high levels during and immediately after El Niño years. Longer time series will be required to detect shifts in lifeform composition for highly dynamic seed and seedling communities. The Barro Colorado Island leaf production data are, however, consistent with the hypothesis that lianas are increasing in importance in Neotropical forests.
ISSN:0012-9658
1939-9170
DOI:10.1890/02-0757