Crown closure, in forestry, is a measure of forest canopy coverage. Crown closure and crown cover are two slightly different measures of the forest canopy and that determine the amount of light able to penetrate to the forest floor.
Crown closure, also known as canopy closure, is an integrated measure of the canopy "over a segment of the sky hemisphere above one point on the ground".[1]
Crown cover is the proportion of a stand covered by the crowns of live trees.
A forest stand can have a crown cover of 100% and a crown closure less than 100%. Typical stands with 100% cover but low closure are coffee agroforestry stands, where overlapping parasol-shaped crowns ensure complete cover but still allow light to penetrate at an oblique angle to the forest floor.
- ^ Jennings, S.B., N.D. Brown, and D. Sheil. 1999. Assessing forest canopies and understorey illumination: Canopy closure, canopy cover and other measures. Forestry 72(1):59-73