Abstract

DOMINGUEZ-CALLEROS, Pedro A. et al. Applications and examples of diameter growth models for tropical trees. Ecosistemas y recur. agropecuarios [online]. 2017, vol.4, n.11, pp.265-274. ISSN 2007-901X.  https://doi.org/10.19136/era.a4n11.1060.

Growth and yield models of individual tropical trees are central to conventional and sustainable forest management. The objective was to fit five diameter growth and yield models to Latin-American individual tropical trees and to derive diameter growth curves as a function of age. Diameter increments were collected from individual tropical trees. With the use of statistical techniques,five increment models amenable to be integrated over time: Log Normal, Chapman-Richards, Von Bertalanfy, Logistic, and Gompertz were fitted. Assuming an initial diameter of seedlings at age=1, diameter growth curves were developed, which can also be fitted by the integral form of the increment equations. Results show parameters of best adjusted increment equations as well as growth curves as a function of age and the document discusses their potential utilization in forest management plans. The goodness of fit statistics could not tell apart whether the number of monitored trees controlled the best fitting model. Further research is recommended to check on the limits of model application and the assumptions set on the diameter growth time series.

Keywords : Chapman-Richards; log normal; Von Bertalanffy; Gompertz; logistic.