Canopies and climate change

Abstract

At the interface between the biosphere and the atmosphere, the forest canopy both experiences and influences changes in temperature and humidity, gas fluxes and air chemistry and the physical effects of wind and precipitation. The canopy is exposed to conditions not found elsewhere in the forest structure; thus trees, epiphytes, vertebrates, invertebrates and microbes inhabiting the edges of the canopy must be adapted physiologically and behaviourally to either tolerate or avoid these extremes. Here we focus on the impact of the key factors in the climate change models. From our understanding of forest ecosystem dynamics and recent experimental and observation studies, what can be said about responses within the canopy to the changes in climatic parameters predicted by the models?