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Scientists find trees in Panama’s Nizan tropical forests that use lightning shocks to their advantage. S | Credit: Pawopa3336/Getty Images
The flash is usually regarded as a harbinger of destruction in the forests, killing or damaging trees in their blasts. But in the low tropical forests of Panama, a kind of rising tropical tree may have evolved to use this power of nature in its favor.
Bob Tone Tonka’s Tree (Dipteryx Oleifera) In fact, it can take advantage of lightning, according to a new study.
Scientists have found that these trees not only survive these electrical meetings unharmed, but lightning damages their competitors and parasitic vines that cling to Bob Tonka’s trees. Researchers published their discoveries on March 26 in the magazine New phytologistS
“We started doing this job 10 years ago, and it really became clear that lightning kills many trees, especially many large trees,” a lead author of a study Evan upForest Ecologist at the Carrie Ecosystem Institute, told Live Science. “But Dipteryx Oleifera He constantly did not show damage, ”Gora said.
In tropical forests, lightning is the main cause of the mortality of trees -especially among the largest, the oldest trees that play key roles in carbon storage and maintain biodiversity.
Understanding how the flash shapes the forest and the composition of the species could shed light on how resistant these ecosystems are over climate change. But against the backdrop of destruction, the researchers noticed something surprising: one species seems to be thriving.
Using a custom -made system of sensors and cameras on electric impact tracking fields, researchers studied nearly 100 lightning events in the monument of the nature of Baro Colorado in Panama.
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In order to track the exact points at which lightning bolts hit, scientists have developed a high -resolution detection system. Antenna array, placed throughout the Central Panama, found radio waves of lightning blows. Analyzing the energy models recorded by any sensor in the array, researchers can triangulate the impact with high accuracy.
When combined with Earth studies and drone images, the team can determine the forest area that was struck and monitored the condition of the trees over time.
A Dipteryx Oleifera Tree just after being hit by lightning in 2019 (left) against two years later (right). The tree is experiencing a blow with minimal damage and takes advantage of its parasitic vines and competing neighbors are removed from the strike. | Credit: Evan Forest
Researchers have discovered that D. Oleifera He stood out as a species that constantly showed almost no damage after being struck by lightning.
To get a longer -term picture of the lightning impact on Bob Tonka’s trees and their neighbors, the team has analyzed decades of wood plots records.
“During these 40 years there is a measurable, detectable danger of life to Dipteryx OleiferaS [As a tree]It is essentially more likely to die than to live next to every other big old tree in this forest, “said Gora.
On average, each lightning stroke kills more than 2.4 tonnes (2 metric tonnes) of nearby tree biomass and nearly 80% of the lianas (parasitic vines) that have infected Tonka Bean’s canopy.
The forest speculates that the key behind the resistance of the flash of these trees comes from their physical structure. Past studies suggest that the tree has a high internal conductivity, which allows lightning to pass through without accumulating harmful heat-as well as well insulated wire.
As it tends to grow big – up to 130 feet (40 meters) – and have lived for centuries, a Tonka bean tree is evaluated that it has been hit at least five times after reaching maturity, each stroke helping to clear the vines and competitors, opening the canopy to help it flourish.
Researchers who calculate that they have been hit by lightning can lead to a 14-fold increase in the production of seeds throughout life, which gives the species a major reproductive advantage.
Gregory MooreA hydropowerist at the University of Melbourne, who did not participate in the study, said the discoveries are probably applied to other species. “The type of work can also be applied to other plant communities dominated by trees, such as forests or low forests, where trees are widely separated, so that nothing like a tropical forest,” he said, adding that other tall trees are probably targets.
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“We have long known that some trees can survive many lightning blows,” Moore said, pointing out that some tall trees survive in Australian fires on the bush and rise above their neighbors, making them the main goals for lightning strikes.
“They are often called deer because the top of the crown has been blown away, but they can survive for centuries after being hit by lightning,” he said.
The forest and his colleagues are already expanding their research to other forests in Africa and Southeast Asia to find out if the lightning benefits from other species.