Effects of intermediate silvicultural treatments on the distribution of within-stand growth

Abstract

The distribution of within-stand basal area growth following silvicultural treatments was investigated using a relative size–relative growth (RSG) function. The effects of thinning on the distribution of tree basal area, including changes in location or scale, can be incorporated into the estimation of the RSG function parameters. Additional stand growth due to fertilization can also be allocated to individual trees using the same RSG function, since the contribution of a tree's response to total stand treatment response depends on its relative size in the stand. Statistical tests and validation of the RSG function indicated that thinning and fertilization do not alter the characteristic relationships between tree size, stand density, stand structure, and the relative distribution of growth across size classes within a stand. Therefore, silvicultural treatment growth responses predicted at a whole-stand level of resolution can be disaggregated to a list of individual trees using the RSG function developed from untreated plots.