Marquette University researchers offer the first empirically supported explanation for loss of tropical forest carbon storage, decaying tropical forest carbon sink
by Kevin Conway, Marquette University
October 13, 2025
An increasing abundance in woody vines—or “lianas”—reduces canopy tree growth and survival in tropical forests, which limits forest carbon storage, according at researchers at Marquette University. This is the first direct empirically supported explanation for the ongoing decline in the American tropical forest carbon sink, which poses serious ramifications for atmospheric carbon levels and global climate change.
Dr. Stefan Schnitzer, Mellon Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, and Dr. David DeFelippis, a postdoctoral researcher, observed more than 117,000 plants over a 10-year period and found that lianas reduce canopy tree growth and survival, which limits forest carbon storage. Their findings were published under the headline “Does increasing canopy liana density decrease the tropical forest carbon sink?” in the October 2025 (Volume 106, Issue 10) issue of Ecology, a flagship journal of The Ecological Society of America.
Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.70196