Describing tree size diversity

Management based modifications of forest structure require a precise description of the forest state both before and after a silvicultural interference. While the average values of variables such as diameter, height and basal area provide useful descriptions of the forest state, these variable...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Ali, Abdul Aziz
Formato: H1
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: SLU/Dept. of Forest Resource Management 1997
Materias:
_version_ 1855570750009769984
author Ali, Abdul Aziz
author_browse Ali, Abdul Aziz
author_facet Ali, Abdul Aziz
author_sort Ali, Abdul Aziz
collection Epsilon Archive for Student Projects
description Management based modifications of forest structure require a precise description of the forest state both before and after a silvicultural interference. While the average values of variables such as diameter, height and basal area provide useful descriptions of the forest state, these variables do not give information about the structural variety of the forest on a tree to tree basis. The aim of this study is to introduce and discuss a simple index that can be used to measure the dissimilarity in sizes between trees. The index, called the tree size diversity index di, is based on the coefficient of variation of the diameter sizes of two neighbouring trees. For a theoretical all-sized forest, di has an expected value of0.5. This value is considered to be the standard or 'yardstick' for measuring tree size diversity. di always ranges from 0 to 1. It is close to zero when the trees are of similar size, and tends to one as the difference between the trees gets larger. The tree size diversity index can also be used to test hypotheses concerning size segregation, whereby large trees may tend to occur in the neighbourhood of other large trees and small trees in the neighbourhood of other small trees. This can be accomplished by carrying out randomisation tests as discussed in the study. The tree size diversity index therefore provides a variable that can be used to describe a particular forest state, that is a practical measure of control for assessing silvicultural interference, and is a nearest neighbour statistic for testing hypotheses concerning tree size segregation.
format H1
id RepoSLU4840
institution Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
language Inglés
publishDate 1997
publishDateSort 1997
publisher SLU/Dept. of Forest Resource Management
publisherStr SLU/Dept. of Forest Resource Management
record_format eprints
spelling RepoSLU48402012-09-28T08:16:44Z Describing tree size diversity Ali, Abdul Aziz Tree Size Diversity Management based modifications of forest structure require a precise description of the forest state both before and after a silvicultural interference. While the average values of variables such as diameter, height and basal area provide useful descriptions of the forest state, these variables do not give information about the structural variety of the forest on a tree to tree basis. The aim of this study is to introduce and discuss a simple index that can be used to measure the dissimilarity in sizes between trees. The index, called the tree size diversity index di, is based on the coefficient of variation of the diameter sizes of two neighbouring trees. For a theoretical all-sized forest, di has an expected value of0.5. This value is considered to be the standard or 'yardstick' for measuring tree size diversity. di always ranges from 0 to 1. It is close to zero when the trees are of similar size, and tends to one as the difference between the trees gets larger. The tree size diversity index can also be used to test hypotheses concerning size segregation, whereby large trees may tend to occur in the neighbourhood of other large trees and small trees in the neighbourhood of other small trees. This can be accomplished by carrying out randomisation tests as discussed in the study. The tree size diversity index therefore provides a variable that can be used to describe a particular forest state, that is a practical measure of control for assessing silvicultural interference, and is a nearest neighbour statistic for testing hypotheses concerning tree size segregation. SLU/Dept. of Forest Resource Management 1997 H1 eng https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/4840/
spellingShingle Tree
Size
Diversity
Ali, Abdul Aziz
Describing tree size diversity
title Describing tree size diversity
title_full Describing tree size diversity
title_fullStr Describing tree size diversity
title_full_unstemmed Describing tree size diversity
title_short Describing tree size diversity
title_sort describing tree size diversity
topic Tree
Size
Diversity