If you are particularly insightful, you may notice a higher number species in the light patch than in the surrounding forest, higher species richness . The light patch that results from a canopy gap is not always a discrete, easily identifiable entity with clearly defined boundaries in space or time. Thus, canopy gaps and the resulting changes in forest light regime and related physical phenomena are complex and change dramatically over space and time. A gap was defined as any canopy opening formed by one or more gap makers in which regeneration was less than 10 meters in height. Several general properties of canopy gaps appear to be important.
Gaps have size, often estimated by an ellipse.
Thus, gaps have ages, measured in years or the number of growing seasons since formation and reaching a maximum when the canopy once again closes. It then follows that gaps have closure rates, defined as the change in gap area that occurs over time as trees grow up from beneath or laterally from the sides. Based on these and other characteristics, one could describe populations of gaps in a forest. Important stand level or stand scale ecological aspects of the gap-phase disturbance regime include the fraction of the forest in canopy gaps, called the gap fraction of the canopy, and the size distribution of gaps in the forest or stand. The gap fraction provides an overall or average measure of canopy disturbance, the percentage of the canopy is in gaps at any point in time, and can be used to estimate demography - the birth and death rates of canopy trees, for instance.