Jack Putz has been studying climbing vines for 50 years since developing a fascination with jungle films and books in his childhood.
The professor of biology, from University of the Sunshine Coast, has co-authored a study showing vine control could help improve the health of trees in forests and increase their carbon uptake.
"The idea for this research stemmed from rainy Saturday afternoons watching Tarzan movies with my father, and just wondering about how Tarzan would swing through the canopy," Professor Putz said.
He said while the impact of vines on trees was well-known, the new research showed the benefits of controlling them in a targeted way.
"We could both increase timber yields from forests that are managed for timber, and increase rates of carbon uptake from the atmosphere, which is a goal of people all over the world, to mitigate the effects of climate change," Professor Putz said.
The paper, to be published in international peer-reviewed journal Forest Ecology and Management in July, also involved researchers from the University of Florida, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, Eastwood Forests in the United States and the Science for Sustainability in Central America.
The study found that removing woody vines, also known as lianas, from five to 10 trees per hectare was a cost-effective way to increase timber yields while also increasing the absorption of carbon by the liberated trees.
"It's only a partial solution, and we have to stop burning so much fossil fuel," Professor Putz said.
"But in the meantime, we need to depend on nature to help us to solve this massive global problem.
"And it needs to be done in an environmentally friendly, socially acceptable and financially feasible manner."
Decades of benefits
The researchers found that it would cost about $1.50 per hectare to implement the liana-cutting treatment where the vines were abundant.
"It takes a minute or two to cut the lianas on a tree and costs only about 25 cents, but the benefits to the liberated tree accrue for decades afterwards," Professor Putz said.
"When a tree is liana infested, its crown is often covered, so it's not getting a lot of sunshine, which slows photosynthesis.
"These climbing plants have thin stems but lots of roots, so they're taking a lot of water and nutrients from the soil."
He said while the study showed the importance of liana removal, it needed to be done in a controlled way, as the vines played important roles in forest ecosystems.
"They provide pathways between tree crowns for animals that don't fly, they produce a lot of leaf litter, flowers and fruits, and they have their own contributions to biological diversity," he said.
"But if the treatment is restricted to five or 10 medium-sized trees per hectare, I don't think the biodiversity impacts are measurable," he said.
Professor Putz recommends vine stems be cut twice: once near the ground and again as high as possible.
"Virtually all cut lianas will send up sucker shoots, and if there are recently cut lianas hanging from the canopy, the sprouts will use them as trellises to climb back up to the canopy, which is best to avoid," he said.
'Simple and doable'
Ecologist Claudia Romero, another University of the Sunshine Coast author of the study, said the most exciting aspect of the research was the ease with which it could be implemented.
"The simplicity and the beauty of this intervention is that it is part of the practices that are considered legal and doable by many forestry concessions in a range of different countries in the tropics," Dr Romero said.
"The fact that it can so easily be implemented and deliver such benefits is just marvellous.
"So, in crafting this intervention, the goal is not to eliminate all lianas in the forest, because that would have very bad consequences for wildlife.
"The goal is to focus the intervention only on those trees that are going to be harvested in the future."
The next planned phase of the research is for industrial-scale pilot programs in managed forests in the countries of Suriname, in South America, and Gabon, in Africa, where increasing forest carbon stocks and sustaining timber yields are both goals.
