Tuatara: Volume 21, Issue 3, April 1975
Recording Canopy and Understorey Composition in Forest and Scrub Surrounding the Transect
Recording Canopy and Understorey Composition in Forest and Scrub Surrounding the Transect
It is often desirable to have a more complete picture of the composition of the uppermost (canopy) layer and understorey of the page 84 vegetation than can be derived from the transect data alone. The composition of the canopy surrounding the transect can be measured using either a point analysis of crown cover (e.g. Druce 1966) or other method such as counting the relative numbers of stems of species in the canopy layer.
For sampling or describing the understorey an arbitrary but useful method of subdividing the space below the canopy is as follows:
This procedure is a way of stratifying the space beneath the canopy but its use does not imply that a particular LAYER of vegetation is necessarily present. Recognisable layers may be found at any height beneath the canopy. depending on the height distribution of foliage.
0 | -0.3 m ht | … . . | ground storey | (G) |
0.3 | -2 m ht | (browse line for herbivorous mammals) | lower understorey | (L) |
2 | - -6 m ht | … .) | ((U1) | |
upper understorey ( | ||||
> 6m ht | … .)((U2) |