Lightning is a common source of disturbance, but its ecological effects in tropical forests are largely undescribed. Here we quantify the contributions of lightning strikes to forest turnover and plant mortality in a lowland Panamanian forest using a real-time lightning monitoring system. We examined 2,195 lightning-damaged trees distributed among 93 different strikes. None exhibited scars or fires. On average, each strike disturbed 451 m² (95% CI: 365–545 m²), created a canopy gap of 304 m² (95% CI 198–454 m²), and caused 7.36 Mg of woody biomass turnover (CI: 5.36–9.65 Mg). Cumulatively, we estimate that lightning strikes in this forest create canopy gaps equaling 0.39% of forest canopy area, representing 20.1% of annual gap area formation, and are responsible for 16.1% of total woody biomass turnover. Trees, lianas, herbaceous climbers and epiphytes were killed by lightning at rates 8–29 times greater than their baseline mortality rates in undamaged control sites. The likelihood of lightning-caused death was higher for trees, lianas, and herbaceous climbers than for epiphytes, and high liana mortality suggests that lightning is an important driver of liana turnover. These results indicate that lightning influences gap dynamics, plant community composition and carbon storage capacity in some tropical forests.

中文翻译：

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闪电对热带森林生物量周转、间隙形成和植物死亡的贡献

闪电是常见的干扰源，但其在热带森林中的生态影响在很大程度上未被描述。在这里，我们使用实时闪电监测系统量化了雷击对巴拿马低地森林中森林周转率和植物死亡率的贡献。我们检查了分布在 93 次不同雷击中的 2,195 棵被雷击损坏的树木。没有出现疤痕或火灾。平均而言，每次罢工扰动了 451 m ² (95% CI: 365–545 m ² )，产生了 304 m ² (95% CI 198–454 m ² )的冠层间隙)，并导致 7.36 毫克的木质生物量周转（CI：5.36-9.65 毫克）。累积起来，我们估计这片森林中的雷击造成的林冠间隙相当于林冠面积的 0.39%，占年度间隙面积形成的 20.1%，占木质生物量总周转量的 16.1%。树木、藤本植物、草本攀缘植物和附生植物被闪电杀死的速度是未受损控制地点的基线死亡率的 8-29 倍。树木、藤本植物和草本攀缘植物被闪电导致死亡的可能性高于附生植物，而藤本植物的高死亡率表明闪电是藤本植物周转的重要驱动因素。这些结果表明，闪电会影响一些热带森林的间隙动态、植物群落组成和碳储存能力。