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1. Lianas are prevalent in Neotropical forests, where liana-tree competition can be intense, resulting in reduced tree growth and survival. The ability of lianas to grow relative to trees during the dry season suggests that liana-tree competition is also strongest in the dry season. If correct, the predicted intensification of the drying trend over large areas of the tropics in the future may therefore intensify lianatree competition resulting in a reduced carbon sink function of tropical forests. However, no study has established whether the liana effect on tree carbon accumulation is indeed stronger in the dry than in the wet season. 2. Using 6 years of data from a large-scale liana removal experiment in Panama, we provide the first experimental test of whether liana effects on tree carbon accumulation differ between seasons. We monitored tree and liana diameter increments at the beginning of the dry and wet season each year to assess seasonal differences in forest-level carbon accumulation between removal and control plots. 3. We found that median liana carbon accumulation was consistently higher in the dry (0.52 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) than the wet season (0.36 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) and significantly so in three of the years. Lianas reduced forest-level median tree carbon accumulation more severely in the wet (1.45 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) than the dry (1.05 Mg C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) season in all years. However, the relative effect of lianas was similar between the seasons, with lianas reducing forest-level tree carbon accumulation by 46.9% in the dry and 48.5% in the wet season. 4. Synthesis. Our results provide the first experimental demonstration that lianas do not have a stronger competitive effect on tree carbon accumulation during the dry season. Instead, lianas compete significantly with trees during both seasons, indicating a large negative effect of lianas on forest-level tree biomass increment regardless of seasonal water stress. Longer dry seasons are unlikely to impact liana-tree competition directly; however, the greater liana biomass increment during dry seasons may lead to further proliferation of liana biomass in tropical forests, with consequences for their ability to store and sequester carbon.

Lianas are a quintessential feature of tropical forests and are often perceived as being poorly studied. However, liana removal studies may be one of the most common experimental manipulations in tropical forest ecology. In this review, we synthesize data from 64 tropical liana removal experiments conducted over the past 90 yr. We explore the direction and magnitude of the effects of lianas on tree establishment, growth, survival, reproduction, biomass accretion, and plant and animal diversity in ecological and forestry studies. We discuss the geographical biases of liana removal studies and compare the various methods used to manipulate lianas. Overall, we found that lianas have a clear negative effect on trees, and trees benefitted from removing lianas in nearly every study across all forest types. Liana cutting significantly increased light and water availability, and trees responded with vastly greater reproduction, growth, survival, and biomass accumulation compared to controls where lianas were present. Removing lianas during logging significantly reduced damage of future merchantable trees and improved timber production. Our review demonstrates that lianas have an unequivocally detrimental effect on every metric of tree performance measured, regardless of forest type, forest age, or geographic location. However, lianas also appear to have a positive contribution to overall forest plant diversity and to different animal groups. Therefore, managing lianas reduces logging damage and improves timber production; however, the removal lianas may also have a negative effect on the faunal community, which could ultimately harm the plant community.

The growing availability of single-cell and spatially resolved transcriptomics has led to the development of many approaches to infer cell–cell communication, each capturing only a partial view of the complex landscape of intercellular signalling. Here we present LIANA+, a scalable framework built around a rich knowledge base to decode coordinated inter- and intracellular signalling events from single- and multi-condition datasets in both single-cell and spatially resolved data. By extending and unifying established methodologies, LIANA+ provides a comprehensive set of synergistic components to study cell–cell communication via diverse molecular mediators, including those measured in multi-omics data. LIANA+ is accessible at https://github.com/saezlab/liana-py with extensive vignettes ( https://liana-py.readthedocs.io/ ) and provides an all-in-one solution to intercellular communication inference. Dimitrov et al. present LIANA+, a framework that unifies and extends approaches to study inter- and intracellular signalling from diverse mediators, captured from single-cell, spatially resolved and multi-omics data.

Chloroplast (cp) genome organization, gene order, and content have long been considered conserved among land plants. Despite that, the generation of thousands of complete plastomes through next-generation sequencing (NGS) has challenged their conserved nature. In this study, we analyze 11 new complete plastomes of (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae), a diverse genus of Neotropical lianas, and that of . We explored the structure and content of the assembled plastomes and performed comparative analyses within and among other plastomes available for Bignoniaceae. The overall gene content and orientation of plastomes is similar in all species studied. Plastomes are not conserved among , showing significant differences in length (155,262-164,786 bp), number of genes duplicated in the IRs (eight, 18, or 19), and location of the SC/IR boundaries (i.e., LSC/IRa junction between and genes, within , or within ). Length differences reflect expansions of the IRs and contractions of the LSC regions. The plastome of is 168,172 bp, includes 19 duplicated genes, and has the LSC/IRa boundary located within the gene. plastomes show high nucleotide diversity, with many hypervariable regions, and 16 genes with signatures of positive selection. Multiple SSRs and repeat regions were identified for and . The differences in structure detected within plastomes in terms of LSC/IR and IR/SSC boundaries, number of duplicated genes, and genome sizes are mostly shared between taxa that belong to the same clade. Our results bring new insights into the evolution of plastomes at low taxonomic levels.

Question: Have liana density and biomass increased in central Amazonia over the last 10 years? Can a spatially explicit consideration of liana mortality and recruitment rates across hydro-edaphic and tree turnover gradients at the landscape scale explain changes in liana density and biomass? Location: Ducke Forest Reserve, 26 km north of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Methods: Data were collected on 30–1 ha permanent plots in a central Amazonia undisturbed old-growth rain forest 10 years after the first census. We measured lianas at 1.3 cm above their rooting point, with a diameter (D) ≥ 5 cm and subsampled lianas ≥1 cm diameter in 0.25 ha per plot. We estimated above-ground density and biomass changes, mortality rate, recruitment and diameter increase. Soil cations and available P were reduced to two dimensions with PCA and the first axis used as the descriptor of soil fertility. Height above the nearest drainage, a proxy for water availability, tree turnover (D ≥ 10 cm) and soil fertility were used as predictors of liana dynamics. Results: No significant change in liana density and biomass, averaged over the 30-km2 landscape, was observed over the last 10 years. In 2014, liana density was generally higher in more fertile soils, and it increased in areas closer to the water table and with higher tree turnover in the valleys. This pattern resulted from the higher liana recruitment rates in valley plots closer to the water table. Liana mortality rates were uniform across plots, similar among the diameter classes and, on average, higher than recruitment. Conclusion: We did not find any evidence that liana density and biomass have been increasing in this Neotropical site over the last 10 years. These findings suggest that the current knowledge on liana increase trends in the Neotropics should be reviewed if supported by further tropical studies.

Lianas constitute a diverse polyphyletic plant group that is advancing our understanding of ecological theory. Specifically, lianas are providing newinsights into the mechanisms that control plant distribution and diversity maintenance. For example, there is now evidence that a single, scalable mechanism may explain local, regional, and pan-tropical distribution of lianas, as well as the maintenance of liana species diversity. The ability to outcompete trees under dry, stressful conditions in seasonal forests provides lianas a growth advantage that, over time, results in relatively high abundance in seasonal forests and low abundance in aseasonal forests. Lianas may also gain a similar growth advantage following disturbance, thus explaining why liana density and diversity peak following disturbance at the local, forest scale. The study of ecology, however, is more than the effect of the environment on organisms; it also includes the effects of organisms on the environment. Considerable empirical evidence now indicates that lianas substantially alter their environment by consuming resources, suppressing tree performance, and influencing emergent properties of forests, such as ecosystem functioning, plant and animal diversity, and community composition. These recent studies using lianas are transcending classical tropical ecology research and are now providing novel insights into fundamental ecological theory.

Tree mortality rates appear to be increasing in moist tropical forests (MTFs) with significant carbon cycle consequences. Here, we review the state of knowledge regarding MTF tree mortality, create a conceptual framework with testable hypotheses regarding the drivers, mechanisms and interactions that may underlie increasing MTF mortality rates, and identify the next steps for improved understanding and reduced prediction. Increasing mortality rates are associated with rising temperature and vapor pressure deficit, liana abundance, drought, wind events, fire and, possibly, CO2 fertilization-induced increases in stand thinning or acceleration of trees reaching larger, more vulnerable heights. The majority of these mortality drivers may kill trees in part through carbon starvation and hydraulic failure. The relative importance of each driver is unknown. High species diversity may buffer MTFs against large-scale mortality events, but recent and expected trends in mortality drivers give reason for concern regarding increasing mortality within MTFs. Models of tropical tree mortality are advancing the representation of hydraulics, carbon and demography, but require more empirical knowledge regarding the most common drivers and their subsequent mechanisms. We outline critical datasets and model developments required to test hypotheses regarding the underlying causes of increasing MTF mortality rates, and improve prediction of future mortality under climate change.

Questions: How does the structure of liana communities (diameter, density and biomass) in tropical montane forests vary along elevation and topographic gradients? How do patterns of tree infestation vary with elevation? Is tree diameter growth reduced by lianas in tropical montane forest? Location: Tropical Andean forests (1000-3000 m a.s.l.) in the San Francisco Reserve and in the Podocarpus National Park, southern Ecuador. Methods: All lianas (DBH ≥1 cm) were censused in 54 permanent plots (20 × 20 m) equally distributed between three study sites (1000, 2000 and 3000 m a.s.l.) and three topographic positions (lower, mid and upper slope) per site (six replicate plots at each site by position combination). The DBH and number of lianas hosted was recorded for all trees (DBH ≥ 10 cm). Liana biomass was estimated using allometric equations. ANOVAs were used to test for effects of elevation and slope positions on liana parameters and proportion of trees infested. The relationships between liana biomass and tree parameters and environmental parameters were analysed with partial least squares regression. We used the available literature data to perform a regression analysis of liana biomass in response to elevation in humid tropical old-growth forests between sea level and 3000 m a.s.l. Results: Liana diameter, density and biomass all decrease with elevation. The decreasing liana biomass agrees with results from previous studies of liana biomass in other humid tropical forests, indicating a decrease of 0.18 Mg·ha⁻¹ liana biomass per 100 m of elevation gain. Topographic variation leads to thinner but more abundant stems upslope; there was no effect of topographic position on liana biomass. Liana biomass and liana infestation are both positively correlated with host tree DBH at every elevation. Tree diameter growth is reduced by liana infestation; the proportion of infested trees is lower in Andean montane forests than in tropical lowland forests. Conclusions: Liana biomass distribution and tree infestation vary significantly with elevation. Biomass of lianas and relative contribution of lianas to total above-ground biomass both decrease with elevation. Topographic effects likely result from higher soil fertility at lower slope positions.

Climbing Bignoniaceae are an important group in tropical forests, with high species diversity in Brazil. Regional floristic studies, which involve reviewing regional herbaria, are fundamental to understanding diversity. This study reviews the species of the tribe Bignonieae in the Northwestern, Northern Central, and Northern Pioneer mesoregions of Paraná. A total of thirty-five species were identified and are distributed among the following genera: Adenocalymma, Amphilophium, and Dolichandra (five species each), Anemopaegma, Bignonia, Tanaecium, and Tynanthus (two species each), and Cuspidaria, Mansoa, Pyrostegia, Stizophyllum, and Xylophragma (one species each). The Seasonal Semideciduous Forest predominates in the region and contains 32 species. Areas of greatest diversity generally coincide with the most sampled areas, and most species were collected within Conservation Units. We provide photographs of most species, as well as maps showing the richness and occurrence of each species in the studied area. Collection gaps in the region are still significant, covering nearly half of the territory. Furthermore, three rare species are probably extinct in the region: Adenocalymma peregrinum, Bignonia decora, and Fridericia platyphylla.

Currently, due to the intensive growth of cities, the area for landscaping is being reduced. In conditions of dense development, the use of vertical landscaping plays an important role. The selection of the assortment of plants, in addition to resistance to urban conditions, is also influenced by the decorative characteristics of the species. The use of vines for decorative purposes has a rich history. Along with utilitarian and sanitary-hygienic functions, lianas have long been used to decorate gardens. As a rule, aesthetic evaluation is subjective, but a number of signs can significantly affect its result. We evaluated the types of lianas by decorative qualities in the conditions of the Saratov-Engels agglomeration using the decorative scale. As a result of the study, various options for using lianas in landscaping according to their decorative qualities are proposed.