Eastern Madagascan Lowland Rain Forest Below an altitude of about 800 m this unique tropical rain forest once extended along the entire east coast of Madagascar. Compared to its counterpart in the Guineo-Congolian BioProvince the canopy of these forests are generally lower and the foliage is much more coriaceous and xeromorphic. They are extremely species-rich and show great variation in specie...

Impacts of plant invasions are largely scale-dependent and responses to the same exotic species may vary among communities. Since impacts caused by individual trees could anticipate consequences of a closed canopy of an invader, we studied the response of Galápagos native plants to quinine (Cinchona pubescens) trees in two vegetation zones. Quinine has invaded >11,000 ha of Santa Cruz Island, i...

In arctic tundra, where wind transport of snow is common, shrubs can significantly modify the distribution and physical characteristics of the snow cover. We examined interactions between shrubs and snow by measuring snow depths along three 1-km transects in arctic Alaska and then measuring plant canopy characteristics at the same locations during the following growing season. Snow depths corre...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Growth in trunk height in canopy openings is important for saplings. How saplings increase height growth in canopy openings may relate to crown architectural constraints. Responses of crown development to canopy openings in relation to trunk height growth were studied for saplings (0.2-2.5 m tall) of eight tropical submontane forest tree species in Indonesia. The results of ...