The impact of tree canopy structure on understory variation in a boreal forest

Abstract

Information on understory composition and its relationships with the overstory tree canopy, especially leaf area index (LAI), is crucially needed in, e.g., modeling land-atmosphere interactions and productivity of forests. There are also several global LAI products produced from satellite data which need to be validated with ground reference data. However, to date, only scarce field data on simultaneous structural properties of under- and overstory vegetation, and tree canopy LAI, have been available in boreal forests. This paper shows how understory composition and fractional cover of different species types varies in a boreal forest site, and how it is linked to structural properties of the tree layer. The study is based on 301 understory plots collected in an area of ∼16 km² around Hyytiälä forestry field station, Finland (61°50'N, 24°17'E) in a southern boreal forest site. Forest understory plot data was accompanied with measurements of both standard forest inventory variables and optically-based canopy light transmittance data. Clear differences in average species composition between different site fertility types were observed, but also large variation within each site fertility type was noted. Forest understory composition was better correlated with structural forest canopy measures (e.g., tree canopy LAI, canopy cover, canopy openness) than with traditional forest inventory variables such as tree height or diameter. Forest canopy LAI and the fractional cover of understory were strongly related, especially in more fertile sites. Our results highlight the role of tree canopy structural metrics as modifiers of the understory light climate and growing conditions, also, in boreal forests.

Keywords: Canopy cover; Canopy openness; Forest canopy; Hyytiälä; LAI; Leaf area index; Site fertility.

Fig. 1

Mean vertical cover fractions (%) of forest floor and understory species for the four site fertility types.

Fig. 2

Variation in vertical cover fraction of forest floor and understory species composition in: (a) Herb-rich, (b) Mesic, (c) Sub-xeric, and (d) Xeric site fertility types. Mean, maximum and minimum are denoted with symbols, and standard deviation as a dark line with whiskers.

Fig. 3

Frequency plots showing the number of observations between upper understory and (a) Leaf area index (LAI) using data from all plots, (b) Canopy cover (CC) using data from all plots, and (c) Canopy openness (CO) using data from all plots, (def) LAI, CC and CO using only data from fertile (herb-rich and mesic) plots, (hij) LAI, CC and CO using only data from less fertile (sub-xeric and xeric) plots. The mosaic of hexagons with a color scale shows the number of observations falling into each hexagon bin.