Do plants affect the light density, air temperature, and soil temperature in an area?
I’m not sure what you mean by light density and I can’t honestly say about soil temperature, but I would say that they are still affected. Obviously since leaves are designed to ‘catch’ light and turn it into energy; however, plants, especially in heavily wooded areas like forests and jungles, greatly affect the amount of light and light energy that reaches the ground. Hypothetical: On a hot summer day, there is a tree in an open field. The shade from that tree will will be a few degrees cooler than if you were standing in the sunlight. The Corollary: In a forest or jungle, the canopy absorbs most of the light but much of the heat is trapped, thus making the air temperature inside of a forest/jungle feel warmer, despite being in the shade. I’m no expert on this, but I would assume it has something to do with trapping the humidity. Soil temperature may also be affected by this. Only a few feet beneath the surface of the soil, the temperature (where I’m from, at least) usually hovers at
