Estimating current annual volume increment of pine stands using one-time tree measurements on temporary sample plots

Le résumé fourni par la source

Information on forest growth is critical for understanding forest dynamics and supporting sustainable forest management. The assessment of current annual increment (CAI) of forest stands using repeated measurements on permanent plots is one of the key tasks of national forest inventories; however, such data are often unavailable in many countries or local sites. Therefore, simplified methods based on one-time tree measurements can provide a practical alternative for assessment of CAI. This paper provides an empirical evaluation of the approach for estimating CAI using percentage of volume increment in Scots pine-dominated stands in Ukraine using increment core sampling. The study is based on 927 radial increment measurements obtained from 49 stands of different age and productivity. Based on sampled increment cores, we developed two models of the percentage of the basal area increment as functions of stand age and quadratic mean diameter. The age-dependent model showed a lower root mean squared error (0.76%) than the diameter-dependent model (3.26%) and was therefore selected for CAI estimation. The height growth, which is a second component of volume increment, was predicted using an existing model based on stand age and mean height. Stand-level forest inventory planning data were used to calculate CAI and its age dynamics for the study area. This work demonstrated an effective approach for rapid assessment of CAI using non-destructive sampling, which we recommend for practical application in stand-level forest management planning or prelaminar evaluation of forest growth during early cycles of sample-based forest inventory.

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