Data from: Evidence for arrested succession in a liana‐infested Amazonian forest

1. Empirical evidence and modelling both suggest that global changes may
lead to an increased dominance of lianas, and thus to an increased
prevalence of liana-infested forest formations in tropical forests. The
implications for tropical forest structure and the carbon cycle remain
poorly understood. 2. We studied the ecological processes underpinning the
structure and dynamics of a liana-infested forest in French Guiana, using
a combination of long-term surveys (tree, liana, seedling and litterfall),
soil chemical analyses and remote sensing approaches (LiDAR and Landsat).
3. At stand scale and for adult-trees, the liana-infested forest had
higher growth, recruitment, and mortality rates than the neighbouring
high-canopy forest. Both total seedling density and tree seedling
recruitment were lower in the liana-infested forest. Stand scale
aboveground biomass of the liana-infested forest was 58% lower than in the
high-canopy forest. 4. Aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) was
comparable in the liana-infested and high-canopy forests. However, due to
more abundant leaf production, the relative contribution of fast turnover
carbon pools to ANPP was larger in the liana-infested forest and the
carbon residence time was half that of the high-canopy forest. 5. Although
soils of the liana-infested forest were richer in nutrients, soil
elemental ratios suggest that liana-infested forest and high-canopy forest
soils both derive from the same geological substrate. The higher nutrient
concentration in the liana-infested forest may therefore be the result of
a release of nutrients from vegetation after a forest blow down. 6. Using
small-footprint LiDAR campaigns, we show that the overall extent of the
liana-infested forest has remained stable from 2007 to 2012 but about 10%
of the forest area changed in forest cover type. Landsat optical imagery
confirms the liana-infested forest presence in the landscape for at least
25 years. 7. Synthesis: Because persistently high rates of liana
infestation are maintained by the fast dynamics of the liana-infested
forest, liana-infested forests here appear to be the result of an arrested
tropical forest succession. If the prevalence of such arrested succession
forests were to increase in the future, this would have important
implications for the carbon sink potential of Amazonian forests.