Removing climbers more than doubles tree growth and biomass in degraded tropical forests

Background

Tree climbing plants such as lianas are known to inhibit forest recovery by outcompeting trees after disturbances. The removal of climbers is recognized as a viable forest restoration management practice, however no best practices are established yet due to lack of research repetition and synthesis.

Goals and Methods

The authors conduct a literature review on climber removal studies in tropical forests in order to quantify removal efficacy for promoting tree growth and increasing biomass.

Conclusions and Takeaways

The authors report that climber removal increases tree growth and biomass accumulation for at least 19 years in tropical forests. There is a heavy research focus on climber removal in the Neotropics, leaving Asia and Africa largely a mystery. The authors are unable to report on the impact of location on climber removal efficacy due to this skew in literature. Overall, the authors report that climber removal can contribute greatly to global carbon sequestration and increase forest timber and biomass. This is an important finding for those practicing forest restoration techniques in the tropics.