Assessing site form as an indicator of site quality in even-aged Pinus radiata D. Don stands in north-western Spain

[EN] Key message: Site form and site index have shown similar precision for estimating site quality in even-agedPinus radiataD. Don stands in north-western Spain. Additionally, SF presents the advantage that it does not require stand age information and can therefore be used in a wider set of situat...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Molina Valero, Juan Alberto, Diéguez Aranda, Ulises, Álvarez González, Juan Gabriel, Castedo Dorado, Fernando, Pérez Cruzado, César
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de León
Repositorio:BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
OAI Identifier:oai:buleria.unileon.es:10612/18820
Acceso en línea:https://annforsci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s13595-019-0904-1
https://hdl.handle.net/10612/18820
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ingeniería forestal
Site index
Predicting
Dominant diameter
Dominant height
Stand age
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] Key message: Site form and site index have shown similar precision for estimating site quality in even-agedPinus radiataD. Don stands in north-western Spain. Additionally, SF presents the advantage that it does not require stand age information and can therefore be used in a wider set of situations in the forestry practice. Context: Estimation of site quality is essential for characterizing, monitoring and predicting forest resources. Site index (i.e. the dominant height of the stand at a reference age) is ordinarily used to estimate site quality; however, this index is only useful for even-aged stands of known age. By contrast, SF is age-independent as it uses the dominant height of the stand at a reference dominant diameter. Aims: The aim of this study was to compare the performance of SF and SI for site quality estimation in even-aged P. radiata stands. Methods: Dynamic equations derived with the Generalized Algebraic Difference Approach (GADA) from the Hossfeld IV base model were fitted to predict site quality with both SI and SF. SF predictions were compared with SI regarding variability within the same plot and consistency in site quality predictions, using the observed maximum mean annual volume increment (MAI) as a direct measure of site quality. Results: Both approaches showed good performance in model fitting and provided similar goodness-of-fit statistics and variability in the predictions. However, SI performed slightly stronger when related to MAI