Canopy

The canopy is the upper layer of a forest, formed by the crowns and branches of its trees. It intercepts sunlight and rainfall and creates habitat above the forest floor.

Tree crown: The branches and foliage extending from a tree’s trunk. Overlapping crowns form the canopy’s continuous or broken upper layer.
Canopy interception: The capture and temporary retention of precipitation by vegetation before it reaches the ground. Leaves and branches intercept rainfall before it becomes throughfall or stemflow.
Remote sensing: The collection of information about places or objects from a distance, commonly using satellite or airborne sensors. Sensors estimate canopy cover, height, and condition across large forest areas.
Understory: The vegetation layer beneath a forest canopy and above the forest floor. Canopy shade and rainfall interception shape understory light and moisture.
Forest stratification: The arrangement of vegetation into vertical layers within a forest. The canopy is one layer in a forest’s vertical structure.
Throughfall: Precipitation that reaches the ground by passing through or dripping from vegetation. It is the portion of intercepted rainfall that passes through the canopy.
LiDAR: A remote-sensing method that measures distance using pulses of laser light. LiDAR can map canopy height and the forest’s three-dimensional structure.
Forest microclimate: The local climate conditions within a forest, including temperature, humidity, and wind. Canopy cover buffers conditions below the crowns.
Leaf area index: The total one-sided leaf area per unit of ground area. It quantifies how much leaf surface occupies and shades the canopy.
Stemflow: Precipitation that flows down plant stems and trunks to the ground. Canopy surfaces channel some rainfall down tree trunks.

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