Comparative Canopy Biology and the Structure of Ecosystems

Explore the emerging field of comparative canopy biology in this insightful lecture by Mark Moffett from the National History Museum, Smithsonian. Delve into the challenges of working in tree crowns and discover how ecologists have overlooked communities of spatially fixed organisms that could be compared to forest canopies. Learn about the definition of canopies in terms of sessile organisms emerging from a substratum and their structural products. Examine how canopy biology treats plants as three-dimensional entities, contrasting with traditional two-dimensional ecological studies. Understand the importance of studying microhabitats generated by stratification and complex distribution patterns in sustaining global biodiversity. Consider the potential of periphyton and biofilms as model systems for investigating assembly rules in canopy structures and dynamics.