Spatial and temporal variation in the below-canopy light environment of tropical forests is not well known and its measurement is technically challenging. Distributions of gap and understory areas in forests are likewise little known because of the resource requirements of forest structural censuses and a lack of consensus over how gaps should be defined. A basic model of forest structure, base...

1 Regeneration in forest canopy gaps is thought to lead invariably to the rapid recruitment and growth of trees and the redevelopment of the canopy. Our observations, however, suggest that an alternate successional pathway is also likely, whereby gap-phase regeneration is dominated by lianas and stalled in a low-canopy state for many years. We investigated gap-phase regeneration in an old-growt...

We studied breeding bird assemblages in forest gaps created in 1995 by Hurricane Opal at the Bent Creek Experimental Forest in Asheville, NC. We hypothesized that forest gaps and adjacent closed-canopy forest would differ in bird density, richness, diversity, and relative abundances of some species. To test this hypothesis we censused breeding bird assemblages for 2 years in 12 gaps (0. l-l .2 ...

Numerous bamboos are known to form extensive single-species stands, including species in the United States. Formerly prominent in the southeastern US, canebrakes are dense stands of the bamboos collectively called ‘‘cane’’ [Arundinaria (Michx)]. Canebrakes are now a critically endangered component of the bottomland hardwood forest ecosystem. Cane still occurs in its historic range, primarily in...

Using molecular fingerprinting (amplified fragment length polymorphism [AFLP] method), we explored the potential of small-scale population analysis for understanding colonization patterns of herb layer species in forests after canopy disturbance. We investigated three common forest understorey species with different life forms (Trientalis europaea, Calamagrostis villosa, and Vaccinium myrtillus...

Natural and anthropogenic disturbances alter canopy structure, understory vegetation, amount of woody debris, and the litter and soil layers in forest ecosystems. These environmental changes impact forest communities, including ground-dwelling invertebrates that are key regulators of ecosystem processes. Variation in frequency, intensity, duration, and spatial scale of disturbances affect the m...