1. Integrating The Intra- And Inter-Species-Groups Competition Effects Into An Individual Diameter At Breast Height Growth Model For Mixed-Species Forests In Mexico
- Author
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Corral-Rivas, José Javier, Quiñonez-Barraza, Gerónimo, De los Santos-Posadas, Héctor M., and Zhao, Dehai
- Abstract
The forest management-planning in northwest of Durango, Mexico involve mixed-species stands and the selection method is normally applied for uneven-aged stands in such forests. An individual distance-dependent model without age was used to evaluated the diameter at breast height (dbh) growth and neighborhood effects for four species groups in mixed-species stands. The dataset considers 44 stem-mapped re-measurement plots and twenty-two species were grouped as: Pinus (seven species), other conifers (three species), other broadleaves (four species) and Quercus (eight species). Four methods were used to select neighboring trees, 12 distance-dependent competition indices were computed, and the con-group and hetero-group neighborhood effect were carried out for species groups. The dbh growth model was fitted separately under the assumptions of no-competition effect (without competition term), equivalent and nonequivalent neighborhood effects. The dbh growth models under the assumption of nonequivalent neighborhood effect outperformed the models under the assumptions of equivalent neighborhood effect and without competition effect. The intra-species-group competition negatively affect the diameter growth for all species groups, except for the Quercus group. In all cases, the fitted age-independent dbh growth models showed a good of fit to the stem-mapped plots data with adjusted coefficient of determination values larger than 0.97 and root mean square error values smaller than 1.33 cm. The growth models can be used to predict the dbh growth for the species groups in mixed-species forests.
- Published
- 2017