Vegetative phenologies of lianas and trees in two Neotropical forests with contrasting rainfall regimes.

ABSTRACT: Among tropical forests, lianas are predicted to have a growth advantage over trees during seasonal drought, with substantial implications for tree and forest dynamics. We tested the hypotheses that lianas maintain higher water status than trees during seasonal drought and that lianas maximize leaf cover to match high, dry-season light conditions, while trees are more limited by moisture availability during the dry season. We monitored the seasonal dynamics of predawn and midday leaf water potentials and leaf phenology for branches of 16 liana and 16 tree species in the canopies of two lowland tropical forests with contrasting rainfall regimes in Panama. In a wet, weakly seasonal forest, lianas maintained higher water balance than trees and maximized their leaf cover during dry-season condi

SUBMITTER: Medina-Vega JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9325559 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature