Canopy (forest)
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The canopy is the habitat found at the uppermost level of a forest, especially rainforest. Canopy trees refers to the tallest trees in a forest which are distinguished from secondary trees which occupy a lower ecological niche.
The canopy is home to a unique flora and fauna not found in other layers of a forest.
The term has also been adopted by the permaculture and forest gardening community, who use the distinction between canopy and secondary trees in their seven layer design system.
The canopy of an individual tree refers to the extent of the outer layer of a trees leaves. Shade trees normally have a dense canopy blocking out the light from lower growing plants. The Leaf Area Index can be used to measure the density of the canopy.
Canopy is also the name given to the upper layer of trees (mostly in tropical rainforests) which cover the forest´s floor and protect it from strong winds and storms. Although the canopy protects the soil from winds and storms it also keeps sunlight from reaching it as well as a considerable amount of rain. As a consequence the rainforest floor has considerably less vegetation than the rest of the forest layers.
See also
- Canopy in rainforests
- Canopy gap
- Canopy research
- Canopy walkway
- The Layers of the Rainforest
- Understory
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