Long-term liana infestation leaves architectural legacies in host trees

Authors

Young, R., Muller-Landau, H. C., Meunier, F., Verbeeck, H., Krishna Moorthy, S. M., Salguero-Gomez, R.

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.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 19 Sep 2026.

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