Climate regulation
Forest climate
Forest canopies contribute to forest microclimate by controlling and buffering variations in climatic conditions. Forest canopies intercept rain and snowfall, thereby buffering the effects of precipitation on the local climate. Forest canopies also buffer the effects of temperature within forests by creating vertical light gradients. Variations in forest microclimate are also driven by the structure and physiology of canopy trees and epiphytes. This produces feedback loops where forest microclimate both determines and is determined by the species identity, growth traits and forest stand composition of canopy trees. # ISO Certification in India
Global climate
Forest canopies are significantly involved in maintaining the stability of the global climate. They are responsible for at least half of the global Carbon dioxide exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. Forest canopies act as carbon sinks which reduce the increase of atmospheric CO2 caused by human activity. The destruction of forest canopies would lead to the release of carbon dioxide which would result in an increased concentration of atmospheric CO2. This would then contribute to the greenhouse effect, thereby causing the planet to become warmer.# ISO Certification in India
Canopy interception
This section is an excerpt from Canopy interception.
Canopy interception is the rainfall that is intercepted by the canopy of a tree and successively evaporates from the leaves. Precipitation that is not intercepted will fall as throughfall or stemflow on the forest floor.
Many methods exist to measure canopy interception. The most often used method is by measuring rainfall above the canopy and subtract throughfall and stem flow (e.g., Helvey and Patric [1965]). However, the problem with this method is that the canopy is not homogeneous, which causes difficulty in obtaining representative throughfall data. # ISO Certification in India
Another method that tried to avoid this problem is applied by e.g., Shuttleworth et al. [1984], Calder et al. [1986], and Calder [1990]. They covered the forest floor with plastic sheets and collected the throughfall. The disadvantage of this method is that it is not suitable for long periods, because in the end the trees will dry due to water shortage, and the method is also not applicable for snow events.The method by Hancock and Crowther [1979] avoided these problems by making use of the cantilever effect of branches. If leaves on a branch hold water, it becomes more heavy and will bend. By measuring the displacement, it is possible to determine the amount intercepted water. Huang et al. refined this method later in 2005 by making use of strain gauges. However, the disadvantages of these methods are that only information about one single branch is obtained and it will be quite laborious to measure an entire tree or forest. # ISO Certification in India
