Stand structure and light penetration. 1. Analysis by point quadrats.
Abstract
The path of a point quadrat through a stand until it first contacts foliage is comparable to the path of a ray of light from the sky until it is intercepted; consequently, the interception of light entering at different inclinations by foliage at different heights in a stand can be studied practically by inclined point quadrats, and can be interpreted by point quadrat theory in terms of foliage area per unit area of ground, foliage angle, and inclination. Discrepancies between observed and theoretically expected interception values for a lucerne stand were largely due to non-randomness in the foliage. -R.B.