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Direct measurement of the three-dimensional distribution of leaf area density and light conditions in a mature oak stand by the cube method

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Abstract

Although the distributions of foliage and light play major roles in various forest functions, accurate, nondestructive measurement of these distributions is difficult due to the complexity of the canopy structure. To evaluate the foliage and light distributions directly and nondestructively in a mature oak stand, we used the cube method by dividing the forest canopy into small cubes (50 cm per side) and directly measured leaf area density (LAD, the total one-sided leaf area per unit volume, i.e., cube) and relative irradiance (RI) within each cube. The distribution of LAD and of RI was highly heterogeneous, even at the same canopy height. This heterogeneity reflected the presence of foliage clusters associated with multiple forking branches. The relationship between cumulative LAD at the canopy surface and average RI followed the Beer–Lambert law. The mean light extinction coefficient (K) was 0.32. However, K was overestimated by more than double (0.80) when calculated based on the classical method using RI at the forest floor. This overestimation was caused by the lower RI due to light absorption by nonleaf plant parts below the canopy. Our findings on the complex foliage and light distributions in canopy layers should help improve the accuracy of RI and K measurements and thus more accurate predictions of environmental responses and forest functions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. TT, HQ and DK for helpful suggestions and comments on the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge the logistic support of AN, KU, YK and AK during the field experiments.

Funding

This study was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for scientific research (No. 17658070, 22580173) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan and by “Evaluation of genetic resources for strengthening productivity and adaptability of tropical forests” from the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8687, Japan

    Chiharu Migita & Yukihiro Chiba

  2. Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan

    Tanaka Kenzo

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  1. Chiharu Migita
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  2. Yukihiro Chiba
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Correspondence to Tanaka Kenzo.

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Migita, C., Chiba, Y. & Kenzo, T. Direct measurement of the three-dimensional distribution of leaf area density and light conditions in a mature oak stand by the cube method. J. For. Res. 34, 1817–1827 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-023-01646-x

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