Understanding the importance of lianas for forest health and management. This project aims to assess the impact of lianas (woody vines) and their removal on forest health and value. New field infrastructure, removal experiments and global datasets will be used to compare forest health under varying liana dominance, determine whether lianas are preventing recovery, and to predict regional and global impacts. The project expects to generate new knowledge regarding ecosystem function and global change biology, building collaboration between ecologists, economists and forest managers. The project expects to have significant implications for forest health and the global economy. The expected benefit will be implementation of restoration methods in priority areas and subsequently improved forest health.

The work is expected to improve tropical forest management. Outcomes will include the identification of thresholds of liana dominance that determine whether forests can recover without intervention, and how these vary regionally under varying climate. Through workshops and working relationships with conservation management authorities and landowners across two continents, the expected benefit will be implementation of restoration methods in priority areas and subsequently improved forest health.

• The University of York
• Flamingo Land Ltd
• Regions involved 
• England
• United States of America
• Australia
• Tanzania
• Denmark

Associate Professor Andrew Marshall - ARC Future Fellow

Email: amarsha1@usc.edu.au

Funding body: Australian Research Council

Amount: $1.7M