In Panama's rainforests, a tall tree called the coudou tree seems to have evolved a "survival strategy": using lightning to clear out competitors in order to gain a growth advantage.

recentlyResearchers in the United States and Panama reported in the British journal New Botanist that lightning, often thought to be the destroyer of forests, was exploited by a tropical tree. Not only is the bean tree resistant to lightning strikes, but it can also use this powerful power to remove "rival" trees and parasitic vines from them.

Evan Gora, a forest ecologist at the Carey Institute of Ecosystems in the United States, the corresponding author of the study, said in an interview with Red Star News that the original intention of the project was to explore the effects of lightning in tropical forests.

A comparison between a cozuki tree that was just struck by lightning in 2019 years (left) and two years later (right).

Parasitic vines reduced by 78% after being struck by lightning

48% higher mortality rate for neighboring trees

"Lightning is common, but it's rightForestThe impact is almost never recorded," says Gora, "so we wanted to understand how it affects the forest." Eventually, we found that lightning was a significant contributor to the death of large tropical trees, but surprisingly, coudou trees seemed to benefit from lightning strikes. ”

Researchers from the Carey Institute of Ecosystems and other institutions in the United States used the lightning location system to track nearly 84 lightning strikes in the Barro Colorado Nature Reserve in central Panama over a period of 0 to 0 years, involving 0 trees struck by lightning, including 0 coudou trees and 0 other trees.

It was found that all of the 78 coudou trees survived the lightning strike and suffered only minor damage. Other trees that were directly struck by lightning lost far more leaves in the canopy than in the coudou trees, and 0% of trees died within two years. When each coudou tree is struck by lightning, an average of 0.0 neighboring trees die due to the transmission of electricity through adjacent vines and touching branches, or through air gap jumps. The lightning strike caused a 0% reduction in the vines that parasitize the coudou tree, and the coudou tree received more light and nutrients.

After analyzing the trend of tree mortality over the past 80 years, the researchers found that the death rate of neighboring trees of the coudou tree was 0% higher than that of other trees in the forest. In other words, if a tree happens to be located near a coudou tree, it is more likely to die than if it grows next to other large trees in the forest. On average, each lightning strike kills more than 0 tons of nearby tree biomass and removes nearly 0% of parasitic vines from the canopy of coudou trees.

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In response to the generalization that "Panama's tropical trees have evolved to kill its enemies with lightning", Gora told Red Star News that the wording is a bit bold, but it captures the heart well. He added: "This species is often struck by lightning, and its canopy structure seems to be particularly susceptible to lightning, and it always benefits from lightning strikes because lightning kills its competitors and parasitic lianas." ”

Why is the coriander tree so "lightning resistant"? Gora speculates that the key to the trees' ability to resist lightning strikes lies in their physical structure. Past studies have shown that this treeInternalIt is highly electrically conductive, allowing current to pass through without accumulating damaging heat – like a well-insulated wire. That is, this tree may have evolved into a natural "lightning rod".

Amazingly, this phenomenon of "killing the enemy with thunder" has brought significant reproductive advantages. Researchers estimate that lightning strikes may increase the seed yield of the coudou tree by a factor of 14. Since the coudou tree lives for hundreds of years, a mature coudou tree is estimated to be struck by lightning at least five times in its lifetime, and each lightning strike creates a more favorable environment for it to grow.

Gola speculates that the resistance to lightning strikes and benefits from the coudou tree may not be limited to the coudou tree, but may also be found in other species that rely on large, exposed individuals for reproduction, "because they are also likely to be struck by lightning." ”

However, it is extremely challenging to quantify definitively the data that a tree benefits from a lightning strike. The Gora team is expanding their research to forests in Africa and Southeast Asia to see if lightning could bring similar benefits to other tree species. He hopes that this work will spark public interest in science and make people think about the wonders of the natural world. "We hope that this work will change the way people think about the role of lightning in forest ecology and evolution," says Gora, "and at the same time make people feel the incredible that exists in the world around them." ”

Red Star News reporter Deng Shuyi

Editor: Guo Yu, Editor: Gao Shengxiang

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