Abstract
Tropical forests are currently experiencing large-scale structural changes, including an increase in liana abundance and biomass. Higher liana abundance results in reduced tree growth and increased tree mortality, possibly playing an important role in the global carbon cycle. Despite the large amount of data currently available on lianas, there are not many quantitative studies on the influence of lianas on the vertical structure of the forest. We study the potential of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) in detecting and quantifying changes in forest structure after liana cutting using a small scale removal experiment in two plots (removal plot and non-manipulated control plot) in a secondary forest in Panama. We assess the structural changes by comparing the vertical plant profiles and Canopy Height Models (CHMs) between pre-cut and post-cut scans in the removal plot. We show that TLS is able to detect the local structural changes in all the vertical strata of the plot caused by liana removal. Our study demonstrates the reproducibility of the TLS derived metrics for the same location confirming the applicability of TLS for continuous monitoring of liana removal plots to study the long-term impacts of lianas on forest structure. We therefore recommend to use TLS when implementing new large scale liana removal experiments, as the impact of lianas on forest structure will determine the aboveground competition for light between trees and lianas, which has important implications for the global carbon cycle.
Highlights
Aboveground forest structure is an important factor influencing biodiversity, net primary productivity and the carbon cycle of tropical forests
The mid-canopy shows very little change before and after liana cutting in terms of the vertical distribution of returns. This is likely because the liana stems in the mid-canopy remained, whereas the liana stems in the understorey were removed while cutting and the liana leaves in the upper canopy had mostly fallen six weeks after liana cutting
Our results demonstrate the reproducibility of the terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)-derived metrics to do repeated measurements to study the temporal dynamics of tropical forest structure as a function of height, and the potential of TLS to determine the changes in the vertical profile followed by liana removal
Summary
Aboveground forest structure is an important factor influencing biodiversity, net primary productivity and the carbon cycle of tropical forests. Tropical forests are undergoing large-scale structural changes due to anthropogenic disturbances such as increased atmospheric CO2, logging, hunting, and conversion of forested areas into agricultural lands [1,2,3]. One such structural change in tropical forests is the increase in liana abundance and biomass in the Neotropics. Lianas are woody climbing plants that use trees and other plants as structural support for ascending to the canopy They allocate more resources to canopy development, stem and root elongation than to their structure, resulting in a high leaf to stem ratio compared to trees [5]. Lianas can significantly attenuate light in the forest and can contribute up to 40% of the canopy leaf cover [6]
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