Simulations of tropical rainforest albedo: is canopy wetness important?

Modeling radiative transfer in tropical rainforest canopies: sensitivity of simulated albedo to canopy architectural and optical parameters.

This study evaluates the sensitivity of the surface albedo simulated by the Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS) to a set of Amazonian tropical rainforest canopy architectural and optical parameters. The parameters tested in this study are the orientation and reflectance of the leaves of upper and lower canopies in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) spectral bands. The results are evalu...

Understorey bird responses to the edge-interior gradient in an isolated tropical rainforest of Malaysia

Forest fragmentation results in a loss of forest interior and an increase in edge habitat. We studied how understorey bird community composition and habitat variables changed along an edge-to-interior gradient in a 1248-ha lowland rainforest patch in peninsular Malaysia. Birds and environmental variables such as vegetation structure and litter depth were detected within a 25-m radius of each of...

Beetle assemblages from an Australian tropical rainforest show that the canopy and the ground strata contribute equally to biodiversity.

There remains great uncertainty about how much tropical forest canopies contribute to global species richness estimates and the relative specialization of insect species to vertical zones. To investigate these issues, we conducted a four-year sampling program in lowland tropical rainforest in North Queensland, Australia. Beetles were sampled using a trap that combines Malaise and flight interce...

Tropical Rainforest Ecology from a Canopy Perspective

Many processes that are fundamental to tropical rainforest maintenance and regeneration take place in the forest canopy. Recently developed access techniques afford biologists nondestructive means to document and quantify canopy biota and their accompanying activities and interactions. Results from studies involving within-canopy observations and measurements of nutrient cycling, epiphyte distr...

Insects on flowers: The unexpectedly high biodiversity of flower-visiting beetles in a tropical rainforest canopy