Reptile and amphibian communities were sampled in intact gaps created by wind disturbance, salvage-logged gaps, and closed canopy mature forest (controls). Sampling was conducted during June-October in 1997 and 1998 using drift fences with pitfall and funnel traps. Basal area of live trees, shade, leaf litter coverage, and litter depth was highest in controls and lowest in salvaged gaps. Percen...

To better understand the contribution of understory to biodiversity of a forest ecosystem, we examined the understory in stands of: (1) a Phyllostachys edulis (Moso bamboo) plantation, (2) a Cunninghamia lanceolata (Chinese fir) plantation and (3) a natural evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest (natural mixed forest) in Mt. Mao’er in southern China, and the distribution and diversit...

The amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) absorbed by a canopy (APAR) is an important driving variable for vegetation processes such as photosynthesis. PAR extinction in clumped canopies of shortgrass ecosystems is the focus of this paper. Directional gap fractions estimated at peak biomass on several Mexican shortgrass ecosystems with a hemispherical radiation sensor (Li-Cor, LAI...

We examined the effects of structural and physiological acclimation on the photosynthetic efficiency of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) shoots. We estimated daily light interception (DLI) and photosynthesis (DPHOT) of a number of sample shoots situated at different positions in the canopy. Photosynthetic efficiency (epsilon) was defined as the ratio of DPHOT to the potential daily light interc...

We developed a method for reconstructing tree crown volume from a set of eight photographs taken from the N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE and SW. This photographic method of reconstruction includes three steps. First, canopy height and diameter are estimated from each image from the location of the topmost, rightmost and leftmost vegetated pixel; second, a rectangular bounding box around the tree is con...

We present an operational method for estimating the amount of PAR intercepted by a coniferous shoot. Interception of PAR by a shoot is divided into three components: the amount of radiation coming from the sky, the transmission of radiation through the surrounding vegetation, and the shoot' s silhouette area facing the direction of the incoming radiation. All three components usually vary with ...

Hyperspectral bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) data of Konza prairie grassland acquired in the First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE) on the ground with two SE-590 instruments and remotely with the airborne advanced solid-state array spectroradiometer (ASAS) are analyzed and compared to BRDF data of dense ryegrass ob...

This work develops methods to account for shoot structure in models of coniferous canopy radiative transfer. Shoot structure, as it varies along the light gradient inside canopy, affects the efficiency of light interception per unit needle area, foliage biomass, or foliage nitrogen. The clumping of needles in the shoot volume also causes a notable amount of multiple scattering of light within c...

One of the main strengths of active microwave remote sensing, in relation to frequency, is its capacity to penetrate vegetation canopies and reach the ground surface, so that information can be drawn about the vegetation and hydrological properties of the soil surface. All this information is gathered in the so called backscattering coefficient (σ(0)). The subject of this research have been oli...

There is increasing attention on the effects of seasonal snowpack on wintertime litter decomposition, as well as the processes following it, in cold biomes. However, little information is available on how litter nitrogen (N) dynamics vary with snowpack variations created by tree crown canopies in alpine forests. Therefore, to understand the effects of seasonal snowpack on litter N dynamics duri...