The advantage was persistent: five years
after lianas had been removed, the number of canopy trees with fruits was 150 percent higher, the number of tree species with fruits was 109 higher and fruiting trees had 31 percent more of their canopy covered by fruits.
«We suspected that
lianas might have a negative effect on tree reproduction, but the strength of the effect, only five years
after cutting the
lianas, was surprising» said Maria Garcia León, the lead author, who began working with Schnitzer as an undergraduate at the University of Panama and is now operations manager for the Schnitzer lab.