Tree vines could serve as lightning rods

Nature : Vines once considered parasites may actually protect trees from lightning strikes. Preliminary experiments in forests in the US have shown that vines have lower resistance to electricity than tree branches do. Thus the vines could channel the current from a strike much the way a lightning rod does on a building. That ability could be important for the world’s tropical rainforests. Although lightning strikes have not been a problem so far because of tropical forests’ high moisture content, that could change with global warming and increased droughts. To test the theory, Steve Yanoviak of the University of Louisville in Kentucky plans to lead a team to Panama next month to test the conductivity of liana vines, which have been proliferating there. Over the next two years, the researchers will try to trigger lightning strikes on particular trees with the use of remote-controlled metal pistons that can be deployed during storms.