The impacts of forest management on lianas and tree-liana interaction at the end of the first cutting cycle in the Eastern Amazon

• Grant number: 23/15981-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Forest Management
• Principal Investigator: Edson José Vidal da Silva
• Grantee: Vitoria Duarte Derisso
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Lianas are woody vines characterized as structural parasites that compete for natural resources with their host trees, reducing growth and increasing tree mortality. Forest disturbances associated with climate change may favor an increase in lianas, thereby decreasing carbon stock and the stocks of commercial timber species in the Amazon. However, long-term studies of effects of logging on lianas and future timber production are practically non-existent. Therefore, this study aims to assess how conventional logging (CL) and reduced-impact logging (RIL) have impacted the liana population, forest structure and functioning after 30 years of the first cutting cycle. In the CL, RIL, and primary forest, lianas with a diameter > 2 cm will be identified in 700m² transects. In 200 m² plots, the diameters of lianas > 1 cm were counted and measured. Based on forest monitoring data from 74.5 hectares between 1993 and 2023, we classified trees according to the level of liana infestation and ecological group, and calculate tree density, basal area, biomass, and volume in CL and RIL. The data will be analyzed using Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM). Our results will contribute to understanding liana ecology, liana-tree competition and will help develop liana cutting guidelines for cutting cycles in the region. (AU)