SCIENCE LAB SCENICS : ELECTRICAL EDGE

SOME trees don't mind a thunderbolt or two :  So when lightning strikes a tree in the tropics, the whole forest explodes :

'' At their most extreme, it kind of looks like a bomb went off,'' said Evan Gora, a forest ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.

Dozens of trees around the one that was struck are electrocuted. Within months, a sizable circle of forest can wither away.

Somehow, a single survivor stands, seemingly healthier than ever. A new study by Dr. Gora, published in the journal New Phytologist, reveals that some of the biggest trees in a rainforest don't just survive lightning strikes.  They thrive.

Dr. Gora set out to study whether individual trees in the rainforest in Panama's Barro Colorado Nature Monument benefit from being struck by lightning. And if they do, does that help the population of the species survive at a larger scale?

Members of Dr. Gora's team developed a method for monitoring lightning strikes and triangulating their electromagnetic signals.  From 2014 to 2019, their system captured 94 lightning strikes.

The researchers discovered that 85 species had been struck and seven survived, but one stood out literally and figuratively :

Dipteryx oleifera, a towering species, that had been struck nine times, including one tree that had been hit twice and seemed more vigorous.

D.oleifera stands 30 percent taller than the rest of the trees and has a crown 50 percent larger than others, as if it is an arboreal lightning rod.

All the struck D.oleifera trees survived lightning strikes, but 64 percent of other species died within two years. Trees surrounding D.oleifera were 48 percent more likely to die after a lightning strike than those around other species.

In one die-off, a single strike killed 57 trees around D.oleifera '' while the central tree is just happy and healthy,'' Dr.Gora said.

The clearing of neighboring trees and choking vines meant struck D.oleifera trees had less competition for light, making it easier to grow and produce more seeds.

Researchers estimated getting struck multiple times could extend a D.oleifera tree's life by almost 300 years.

The World Students Society thanks Rebecca Dzombak.