Legacy effects of canopy gaps on liana abundance 25 years later in a seasonal tropical evergreen forest in northeastern Thailand

Lianas require host trees to reach and stay in the forest canopy, but as seedlings and juveniles, they benefit from canopy gaps created by treefalls. Here, we evaluated the relative importance of these two aspects, i.e., the availability of potential hosts vs. the legacy effect of past treefall gaps, on the local abundance of liana stems in a seasonal tropical evergreen forest in the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve in northeastern Thailand. Within a 2.5-ha plot for forest dynamics monitoring, canopy height was measured in 1993 and 2018 at 5-m intervals to distinguish areas of mature (canopy height ≥ 20 m), building (10-20 m), and gap phases (< 10 m). In 2017–2018, we surveyed all liana stems ≥ 1 cm in diameter at breast height within 50 subplots (10 m × 10 m each) and recorded their diameter and the diameter of the host tree. Of a total of 445 liana individuals, 242 could be identified at least to the family level, while the others had clear morphological traits of climbing mechanisms. Th...

藤本植物（Lianas）需依托宿主树木方能抵达并维持于林冠层中，但作为幼苗与幼株阶段，它们可受益于树木倒伏形成的林冠林隙。本研究以泰国东北部沙恪拉特生物圈保护区（Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve）内的季节性热带常绿林为研究对象，评估了潜在宿主可获得性与过往树木倒伏林隙遗留效应这两个因素对当地藤本茎秆局部丰度的相对重要性。本研究依托一处用于森林动态监测的2.5公顷样地，于1993年与2018年分别以5米间隔测定林冠高度，据此划分出成熟林冠阶段（林冠高度≥20米）、构建林冠阶段（10~20米）与林隙阶段（<10米）的区域。2017至2018年间，我们在50个单块面积为10米×10米的样方内开展全面调查，统计所有胸径（Diameter at Breast Height）≥1厘米的藤本茎秆，并记录其自身胸径及宿主树木的胸径。本次调查共记录到445株藤本个体，其中242株至少可鉴定至科水平，其余个体则具备清晰的攀援结构形态特征。Th...