We measured gas exchange and various leaf parameters of ash (Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl.) and oak (Quercus robur L.) in the high canopy and of lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) in the lower canopy of a planted, 120-year-old floodplain forest in southern Moravia, Czech Republic. The high-canopy leaves of F. angustifolia and Q. robur had nitrogen concentrations on a leaf area basis (N(area)) that were t...

This paper presents empirical and theoretical analyses of spectral hemispherical reflectances and transmittances of individual leaves and the entire canopy sampled at two sites representative of equatorial rainforests and temperate coniferous forests. The empirical analysis indicates that some simple algebraic combinations of leaf and canopy spectral transmittances and reflectances eliminate th...

The primary role of a crop canopy is to capture sunlight that can be converted to biomass, including sucrose stored in stalks. Canopy development also has a bearing on the amount of water used by the crop and how soon weeds are shaded out. Cultivars are known to differ in the rate of canopy closure in the field, and also differ in traits that determine canopy development, such as leaf size and ...

We examined three different-ploidy wheat species to elucidate the development of aboveground architecture and its domesticated mechanism under environment-controlled field conditions. Architecture parameters including leaf, stem, spike and canopy morphology were measured together with biomass allocation, leaf net photosynthetic rate and instantaneous water use efficiency (WUE(i)). Canopy biomas...

We agree with Knyazikhin et al. (1), who reported in a recent issue of PNAS that relationships between foliar nitrogen (%N) and near-infrared (NIR) canopy albedo appeared to be indirect and explained largely by differences in leaf and canopy structure, primarily between conifer and broadleaf species. We disagree, however, with the conclusion that %N–NIR correlations are necessarily spurious. On...

Fuel moisture content (FMC) is used in forest fire danger models to characterise the moisture status of the foliage. FMC expresses the amount of water in a leaf relative to the amount of dry matter and differs from measures of leaf water content which express the amount of water in a leaf relative to its area. FMC is related to both leaf water content and leaf dry matter content, and the relati...

We agree with Knyazikhin et al. (1), who reported in a recent issue of PNAS that relationships between foliar nitrogen (%N) and near-infrared (NIR) canopy albedo appeared to be indirect and explained largely by differences in leaf and canopy structure, primarily between conifer and broadleaf species. We disagree, however, with the conclusion that %N–NIR correlations are necessarily spurious. On...

The geometrical structure of plant canopies has many implications for plant functioning, microclimatic conditions, and plant-pathogen/herbivore interactions. Plant geometry can be described at several scales. At the finest scale, canopy structure includes the shape, size, location, and orientation of each organ in the canopy. This data set reports the three-dimensional (3-D) geometry of a set o...

The objective of the present experiment was to describe the sward canopy structures of 3 different wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) pastures and relate them to short-term herbage intake rate and foraging dynamics by steers. Pastures were sampled for leaf and stem fractions at the bottom, middle, and top canopy strata. Sward surface heights and tiller and bulk densities were measured. Herbage was se...

The association between spectral reflectance and canopy processes remains challenging for quantifying large-scale canopy phenological cycles in tropical forests. In this study, we used a tower-mounted hyperspectral camera in an eastern Amazon forest to assess how canopy spectral signals of three species are linked with phenological processes in the 2012 dry season. We explored different approac...