Abstract
The dense growth of dwarf bamboo creates shade stress against tree regeneration. How can dwarf bamboo grow under deep shade in the understory? To analyze the relations between light conditions and biomass or the growth characteristics of S. palmata, we investigated the canopy-openness and biomass at the belt transects set up in the gap-understory continuum. We also analyzed whether the biomass was dependent on light intensity or the distance from the gap. Canopy-openness showed a pattern dependent on the distance from the gap. The biomass peaked at the gap and gradually decreased up to the edges of the gap, while it remained constant in the understory. The biomass did not depend on light intensity. This phenomenon can mainly be interpreted two ways. One is that dwarf bamboo is a shade-tolerant species, and adapts to a low light environment due to its growth characteristics. The second is that S. palmata is subject to physiological integration. The result may indicate that physiological integration among ramets enables a compensatory growth through photoassimilate with connected neighboring ramets.
