Browsing: gap ecology

Scientists often get carried away with using what I call “fifty-cent” words and phrases when we talk about our favorite subjects. I try not to do that without defining the terms when I use them, but I occasionally forget. I recently described a common tree as part of the understory of a forest, assuming that everyone would know what I was talking about. Well, a kind friend called me out by asking a simple question – what is the understory? I offer this explanation as penance for my sin of omission.