Rodriguez de Prado, Diego and Riofrio, Jose and Aldea, Jorge and McDermott, James and Bravo, Felipe and Herrero de Aza, Celia
(2022).
Species Mixing Proportion and Aridity Influence in the Height-Diameter Relationship for Different Species Mixtures in Mediterranean Forests.
Forests. 13
:1
, 119
[Research article]
![]() |
PDF
1MB |
Abstract
Estimating tree height is essential for modelling and managing both pure and mixed forest stands. Although height-diameter (H-D) relationships have been traditionally fitted for pure stands, attention must be paid when analyzing this relationship behavior in stands composed of more than one species. The present context of global change makes also necessary to analyze how this relationship is influenced by climate conditions. This study tends to cope these gaps, by fitting new H-D models for 13 different Mediterranean species in mixed forest stands under different mixing proportions along an aridity gradient in Spain. Using Spanish National Forest Inventory data, a total of 14 height-diameter equations were initially fitted in order to select the best base models for each pair species-mixture. Then, the best models were expanded including species proportion by area (m(i)) and the De Martonne Aridity Index (M). A general trend was found for coniferous species, with taller trees for the same diameter size in pure than in mixed stands, being this trend inverse for broadleaved species. Regarding aridity influence on H-D relationships, humid conditions seem to beneficiate tree height for almost all the analyzed species and species mixtures. These results may have a relevant importance for Mediterranean coppice stands, suggesting that introducing conifers in broadleaves forests could enhance height for coppice species. However, this practice only should be carried out in places with a low probability of drought. Models presented in our study can be used to predict height both in different pure and mixed forests at different spatio-temporal scales to take better sustainable management decisions under future climate change scenarios.
Authors/Creators: | Rodriguez de Prado, Diego and Riofrio, Jose and Aldea, Jorge and McDermott, James and Bravo, Felipe and Herrero de Aza, Celia | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Title: | Species Mixing Proportion and Aridity Influence in the Height-Diameter Relationship for Different Species Mixtures in Mediterranean Forests | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Forests | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2022 | ||||||
Volume: | 13 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Article number: | 119 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 18 | ||||||
Publisher: | MDPI | ||||||
ISSN: | 1999-4907 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Forest Science | ||||||
Keywords: | mixed forests performance, species mixing proportions, climate-smart forestry, height-diameter relationship, adaptive silviculture, national forest inventory data, NLMM, programming, machine learning | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-115895 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-115895 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
| ||||||
ID Code: | 27215 | ||||||
Faculty: | S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||||
Department: | (S) > Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 28 Feb 2022 10:25 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2022 10:31 |
Repository Staff Only: item control page