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Canopy structure

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Plant Physiological Ecology

Abstract

Descriptions of canopy structure are essential to achieving an understanding of plant processes because of the profound influence that structure has on plant-environment interactions. The vegetation architecture not only affects exchanges of mass and energy between the plant and its environment, but it also may reveal a strategy of the plant for dealing with long-lasting evolutionary processes, such as adaptation to physical, chemical or biotic factors, by reflecting the organism’s vital activity or peculiarities in growth and development. Plant morphological studies, which are mostly qualitative, have long recognized this fact. Unfortunately quantitative descriptions of geometric features of canopies, plants or individual organs are difficult because canopies are spatially and temporally variable. The level of complexity is ever increasing as we proceed from individual organs to plants to pure stands to heterogeneous plant communities, since each higher level contains elements of the lower levels. For example, Sitka spruce needles are organized along a twig with a determined orientation distribution that varies with depth in the canopy; these shoots are organized into branches in a way that reflects developmental strategy, environmental stimulation and growth restrictions (Norman and Jarvis, 1974); these branches are organized along a stem to reveal a tree and of course trees are distributed throughout a forest. The elegance of this structure challenges the imagination to its limits. Although this elegance may teach us humility, it quickly overwhelms our quantitative aspirations so we must resort to the expediency of statistics for quantitative relations.

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Authors
  1. John M. Norman
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  2. Gaylon S. Campbell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Robert W. Pearcy

  2. Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    James R. Ehleringer

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Harold A. Mooney

  4. Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences and Department of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Philip W. Rundel

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© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Norman, J.M., Campbell, G.S. (2000). Canopy structure. In: Pearcy, R.W., Ehleringer, J.R., Mooney, H.A., Rundel, P.W. (eds) Plant Physiological Ecology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9013-1_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9013-1_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-40730-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-9013-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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