Definition
Canopy is the crown of any type of vegetation including leaves, branches, twigs, and the flora and fauna residing in it along with their microclimate (environment).
Introduction
The term canopy was first developed during the study of tropical rain forest. However, several other vegetation such as kelp forests, sea grasses, gardens, crop fields, etc. also support canopy. Canopy is an important part of the vegetation especially in forest. It consists of uppermost part of any vegetation along with plants, animals, microbes, and their surrounding environment (Russell 2017).
The forest canopy is most diverse and influencing among the above canopies. Canopy biology is an emerging branch of forest science, which incorporates the study of tree crown and their inhabitants and the interactions among them. The forest canopy is a structurally complex subsystem of forest and which plays a major role in forest ecosystem. The growth of individual tree crown is dependent on the surrounding...
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References
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Singh, A. (2019). Canopy. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_225-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_225-1
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