Gross primary production of dwarf bamboo, Sasa senanensis, in a mature beech forest with a substantial gap-mosaic structure.

Forest understory plays an important role in the gross primary production (GPP) of some forest ecosystems. However, differences in understory GPP caused by obviously different overstory canopy structure have not been taken into consideration in previous studies, thus potentially over- or underestimating understory GPP. To estimate the understory GPP more accurately, we separated a forest into "canopy area", with closed-overstory canopy, and "gap area", with open-overstory canopy.