Long-term liana infestation leaves architectural legacies in host trees
- 1University of Oxford
Abstract
Lianas are an integral component of tropical forests, and their increasing abundance may alter forest structure and function. Whether infested host trees are shorter and smaller-crowned because lianas suppress them, or because lianas preferentially colonise already small trees, has remained unresolved. We used a longitudinal dataset of individual liana infestation histories spanning fourteen years (2011-2025), combined with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)-derived structural metrics for 251 trees across 67 species on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Bayesian analyses showed that persistently infested trees were shorter (11.0%), with smaller crown projected area (22.3%) and crown volume (25.9%) than never-infested trees; the 95% credible intervals for these effects excluded zero. Pre-infestation crown architecture did not credibly predict subsequent colonisation. These patterns are more consistent with persistent infestation imposing lasting architectural legacies than with strong pre-existing architectural susceptibility, suggesting rising liana abundance may progressively reduce forest stature and canopy density, with implications for tropical carbon storage projections.
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BibTeX
@misc{young2026longterm,
title = {{Long-term liana infestation leaves architectural legacies in host trees}},
author = {R. Young and H. C. Muller-Landau and F. Meunier and H. Verbeeck and S. M. Krishna Moorthy and R. Salguero-Gomez},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.18.752529},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752529v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Long-term liana infestation leaves architectural legacies in host trees
AU - R. Young
AU - H. C. Muller-Landau
AU - F. Meunier
AU - H. Verbeeck
AU - S. M. Krishna Moorthy
AU - R. Salguero-Gomez
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.18.752529
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752529v1
AB - Lianas are an integral component of tropical forests, and their increasing abundance may alter forest structure and function. Whether infested host trees are shorter and smaller-crowned because lianas suppress them, or because lianas preferentially colonise already small trees, has remained unresolved. We used a longitudinal dataset of individual liana infestation histories spanning fourteen years (2011-2025), combined with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)-derived structural metrics for 251 trees across 67 species on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Bayesian analyses showed that persistently infested trees were shorter (11.0%), with smaller crown projected area (22.3%) and crown volume (25.9%) than never-infested trees; the 95% credible intervals for these effects excluded zero. Pre-infestation crown architecture did not credibly predict subsequent colonisation. These patterns are more consistent with persistent infestation imposing lasting architectural legacies than with strong pre-existing architectural susceptibility, suggesting rising liana abundance may progressively reduce forest stature and canopy density, with implications for tropical carbon storage projections.
ER -