Abstract
In tropical rain forests light availability is extremely variable, at many scales of observation, in time as well as in space (Chazdon 1988, Yanhong & Naoki 1997, Clark et al. 1996, Endler 1993). Light is abundant in the upper part of the forest canopy and in (large) canopy gaps but it is scarce in the forest understorey. This is mainly due to the fact that the leaves intercept and filter light while the stem and branches reflect it. This leads to lower light intensities and drastic changes in light quality with shading.
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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Bongers, F., van der Meer, P.J., Théry, M. (2001). Scales of Ambient Light Variation. In: Bongers, F., Charles-Dominique, P., Forget, PM., Théry, M. (eds) Nouragues. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 80. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9821-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9821-7_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5869-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9821-7
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