Parasitic vines may serve as lightning rods
Parasitic vines may serve as lightning rods
Field campaign in Panama will study whether lianas help trees to survive lightning strikes.
Jyoti Madhusoodanan
02 June 2014
Tropical rainforests in Central and South America are being overrun by lianas, parasitic woody vines that clamber up trees and smother the forest canopy as they reach for sunlight. But the vines may be doing more than infiltrating the ecosystem they may actually be protecting it.
Some researchers suspect that the vines act like lightning rods, saving trees from damage. Understanding this dynamic could help inform how the rainforests will change in the coming years, especially given the predicted effects of climate change on both lightning and lianas.
In July, a group led by Steve Yanoviak, an ecologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, will head to Barro Colorado Island in Panama to begin a two-year study of lianas potentially protective role in the environment.
Nobody has ever thought of lianas as anything but a structural parasite, says Yanoviak. But they might have this unforeseen secondary effect of protecting trees against strikes.
More:
http://www.nature.com/news/parasitic-vines-may-serve-as-lightning-rods-1.15325