‘Simulating Lightning‐Induced Tree Mortality in the Dynamic Global Vegetation Model LPJ‐GUESS‘ (pdf) is a nice little read about simulating global tree death rates due to lighting strikes. The methods they use to validate their model are interesting and, while the number they come up with (301–340 million trees of a diameter of greater than 10cm) seems rather large, it pales when compared to their cited number of 50 billion trees killed by all combined natural causes.
