Panama Study: Tallest Tropical Trees Died Mostly from Lightning
On Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal, scientists map lightning strikes and find that they kill mainly the loftiest trees, likely disturbing the forest ecology.
By Katherine Kornei 30 August 2017
Steve Yanoviak remembers walking through a forest in Panama in 1996 as a storm was brewing. He watched as lightning hit a tree just 10 meters away. That brush with death didn’t deter the University of Louisville (Ky.) ecologist, however. He has returned to Panama for the past 25 years to study ants, spiders, and, yes, lightning.
https://eos.org/articles/panama-study-tallest-tropical-trees-died-mostly-from-lightning
