Focus on lianas

Lianas are an iconic growth form in many tropical ecosystems where they play important roles in community composition, vegetation dynamics and likely responses to climatic change. This informal meeting focuses on some of the diverse approaches and projects centred on lianas at AMAP and will kick off with a key note lecture by our guest speaker Stefan Schnitzer. We will be covering a diverse range of subjects from overarching studies on the ecology and evolution of lianas to new approaches of studying lianas in the field, detailed functional traits, biomechanics, modelling at the community level and finally using lianas as models for bio-inspired new technologies.

Stefan Schnitzer (University Pittsburgh) – Ecology of Lianas
Thomas Couvreur (IRD, DIADE) – Evolution
Begum Kacamak (Forestry Club de France) – Liana communities in northern Congo
Sebastien Levionnois (EcoFog & AMAP) – Anatomical and morphometric approaches
Fiston Nininahazwe (AMAP) – Imaging spectroscopy for distinguishing lianas in canopy
Isabelle Maréchaux (INRA – AMAP) – Functional strategies and modelling
Patricia Soffiatti (UFPR, Brazil) – Biomechanics of climbing cacti
Nick Rowe (CNRS - AMAP) – Biomimetics