Light interception and its relation to structural differences in three Australian rainforest canopies.

The article provides information about a study, which measured the relative differences in the seasonality of light penetrating the canopies of three Australian rainforest. They were measured directly with a quantum meter and indirectly using hemispherical photographs. Because these rainforests exhibit degrees of seasonality in leaf-fall and leaf replacement, it is postulated that the amount of sky visible from the forest floor up through the canopy will exhibit temporal fluctuations relative to the proportion of leaf loss. Profile diagrams were constructed at each site to illustrate the depth and stratification of the canopy, and the differences in these structural features were related to the variation in light attenuation.