Light regimes beneath closed canopies and tree-fall gaps in temperate and tropical forests

TLDR: In this paper, the authors compared light regimes beneath closed canopies and tree-fall gaps for five temperate and tropical forests using fish-eye photography of intact forest canopie and a model for calculating light penetration through idealized gaps.

Abstract: Light regimes beneath closed canopies and tree-fall gaps are compared for five temperate and tropical forests using fish-eye photography of intact forest canopies and a model for calculating light penetration through idealized gaps. Beneath intact canopies, analyses of canopy photographs indicate that sunflecks potentially contribute 37–68% of seasonal total photosynthetically active radiation. In all of the forests, potential sunfleck duration is brief (4–6 min), but the frequency distributions of potential sunfleck duration vary because of differences in canopy geometry and recent disturbance history. Analysis of the photographs reveals that incidence angles for photosynthetically active radiation beneath closed canopies are not generally vertical for any of the forests, but there was considerable variation both among and within sites in the contribution of overhead versus low-angle lighting. Calculations of light penetration through idealized single-tree gaps in old growth Douglas-fir – hemlock forests...