Relationship between tree growth and physical dimensions of Fagus sylvatica crowns assessed from terrestrial laser scanning

doi:10.3832/ifor1566-008

Relationship between tree growth and physical dimensions of Fagus sylvatica crowns assessed from terrestrial laser scanning

Dominik Seidel^(1-2) , Peter Schall⁽²⁾, Malte Gille⁽²⁾, Christian Ammer⁽²⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 8, Issue 6, Pages 735-742 (2015)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor1566-008
Published: Jun 11, 2015 - Copyright © 2015 SISEF

Research Articles

PDF Version

Full Text

Citation

Geo-mapping

Measurements of physical tree crown dimensions were of subjective character in the past, even though they can be considered important for the management of many silvicultural operations, such as timing of thinning operations. In our study we investigated if and how measures of physical crown dimensions of trees differed when quantified conventionally versus based on 3D-terrestrial laser scanning and how they are related to basal area increment. Some 24 randomly selected predominant or dominant beech trees between 90 and 110 yrs of age and of varying height were used as study trees. We hypothesized that tree crown dimensions obtained from scans are more closely related to tree radial growth than those obtained from conventional field measurements. It was found that from a variety of compared crown size characteristics the scan-based tree attributes mean crown radius, maximum area of the crown and crown projection area were most closely related to individual tree growth. We conclude that the horizontal extension of a tree crown in general is to be considered one of the most important drivers of tree growth. We also conclude that terrestrial laser scanning is a powerful tool to reliably measure physical crown dimensions and TLS-based measurements are more reliable than conventional ones.

Keywords

Tree Geometry, Crown Structure, Crown Surface Area, Basal Area Increment

Authors’ address

(1)

Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, 321 Richardson Hall, Corvallis, 97331 OR (USA)

(2)

Department of Silviculture and Forest Ecology of the Temperate Zones, Faculty of Forest Science and Forest Ecology, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 1, 37077 Göttingen (Germany)

Corresponding author

Dominik Seidel
dseidel@gwdg.de

Citation

Seidel D, Schall P, Gille M, Ammer C (2015). Relationship between tree growth and physical dimensions of Fagus sylvatica crowns assessed from terrestrial laser scanning. iForest 8: 735-742. - doi: 10.3832/ifor1566-008

Academic Editor

Chris Eastaugh

Paper history

Received: Jan 17, 2015
Accepted: May 04, 2015

First online: Jun 11, 2015
Publication Date: Dec 01, 2015
Publication Time: 1.27 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Breakdown by View Type

(Waiting for server response...)

Article Usage

Total Article Views: 49453
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 41570
Abstract Page Views: 2725
PDF Downloads: 3916
Citation/Reference Downloads: 32
XML Downloads: 1210

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 3459
Overall contacts: 49453
Avg. contacts per week: 100.08

Article Citations

Article citations are based on data periodically collected from the Clarivate Web of Science web site
(last update: Feb 2023)

Total number of cites (since 2015): 27
Average cites per year: 3.00

(no Plumx Metrics available for this paper)

Publication Metrics

by Dimensions ^©

Articles citing this article

List of the papers citing this article based on CrossRef Cited-by.

(1)

Andrejczyk T, Brzeziecki B (1995)
The structure of old-growth Pinus sylvestris stands in the Wigry National Park, Northeaster Poland. Vegetatio 177: 81-95.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(2)

Bayer D, Seifert S, Pretzsch H (2013)
Structural crown properties of Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst. ) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica [L.]) in mixed versus pure stands revealed by terrestrial laser scanning. Trees 27: 1035-1047.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(3)

Béland M, Widlowski JL, Fournier RA, Côté JF, Verstraete MM (2011)
Estimating leaf area distribution in savanna trees from terrestrial LiDAR measurements. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 151 (9): 1252-1266.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(4)

Binkley D, Campoe OC, Gspaltl M, Forrester DI (2013)
Light absorption and use efficiency in forests: why patterns differ for trees and stands. Forest Ecology Management 288: 5-13.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(5)

Bucksch A, Lindenbergh R, Menenti M (2010)
SkelTre - Robust skeleton extraction from imperfect point clouds. The Visual Computer 26: 1283-1300.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(6)

Burnham KP, Anderson DR (1998)
Model selection and inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York, USA, pp. 353.
Gscholar

(7)

Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002)
Model selection and multi-model inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. Springer Science & Business Media, New York, USA, pp. 488.
Gscholar

(8)

Dassot M, Constant T, Fournier M (2011)
The use of terrestrial LiDAR technology in forest science: application fields, benefits and challenges. Annals of Forest Science 68: 959-974.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(9)

Dassot M, Colin A, Santenoise P, Fournier M, Constant T (2012)
Terrestrial laser scanning for measuring the solid wood volume, including branches, of adult standing trees in the forest environment. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 89: 86-93.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(10)

Dieler J, Pretzsch H (2013)
Morphological plasticity of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in pure and mixed-species stands. Forest Ecology and Management 295: 97-108.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(11)

Dong PH, Kramer H (1985)
Beziehungen zwischen Zuwachs und Kronenparametern in immissionsgeschädigten Nadelholzbeständen [Relationship between tree growth and crown dimensions in coniferous stands affected by immissions]. Dt. Verb. Forstl. Forsch. Anst., Kaelberbronn 5: 1-25. [in German]
Gscholar

(12)

Fichtner A, Sturm K, Rickert C, Oheimb G, Härdtle W (2013)
Crown size-growth relationships of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) are driven by the interplay of disturbance intensity and inter-specific competition. Forest Ecology and Management 302: 178-184.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(13)

Fleck S, Obertreiber N, Schmidt I, Brauns M, Jungkunst HF, Leuschner C (2007)
Terrestrial LIDAR measurements for analysis canopy structure in an old-growth forest. IAPRS 36 (Part 3 / W52): 125-129.
Online | Gscholar

(14)

Fleck S, Mölder I, Jacob M, Gebauer T, Jungkunst HF, Leuschner C (2011)
Comparison of conventional eight-point crown projections with LIDAR-based virtual crown projections in a temperate old-growth forest. Annals of Forest Science 68: 1173-1185.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(15)

Forrester DI, Collopy JJ, Beadle CL, Baker TG (2013)
Effect of thinning, pruning and nitrogen fertiliser application on light interception and light-use efficiency in a young Eucalyptus nitens plantation. Forest Ecology and Management 288: 21-30.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(16)

Gossner MM, Schall P, Ammer C, Ammer U, Engel K, Schubert H, Simon U, Utschick H, Weisser WW (2014)
Forest management intensity measures as alternative to stand properties for quantifying effects on biodiversity. Ecosphere 5 (9): art113.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(17)

Hauglin M, Gobakken T, Astrup R, Ene L (2014)
Estimating single-tree crown biomass of norway spruce by Airborne Laser Scanning: a comparison of methods with and without the use of terrestrial laser scanning to obtain the ground reference data. Forests 5 (3): 384-403.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(18)

Hilker T, Van Leeuwen M, Coops NC, Wulder MA, Newnham GJ, Jupp DL, Culvenor DS (2010)
Comparing canopy metrics derived from terrestrial and airborne laser scanning in a Douglas-fir dominated forest stand. Trees 24 (5): 819-832.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(19)

Hunter MO, Keller M, Vitoria D, Morton DC (2013)
Tree height and tropical forest biomass estimation. Biogeosciences Discussions 10 (6): 10491-10529.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(20)

Jullien D, Widmann R, Loup C, Thibaut B (2013)
Relationship between tree morphology and growth stress in mature European beech stands. Annals of Forest Science 70: 133-142.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(21)

Kramer H, Akça A (1987)
Leitfaden für Dendrometrie und Bestandesinventur [Guidebook for dendrometry and forest inventory]. J. D. Sauerländer’s Verlag, Frankfurt, Germany. pp. 358. [in German]
Gscholar

(22)

Longuetaud F, Piboule A, Wernsdörfer H, Collet C (2013)
Crown plasticity reduces inter-tree competition in a mixed broadleaved forest. European Journal of Forest Research 132 (4): 621-634.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(23)

Maas HG (2010)
Forestry Applications. In: “Airborne and terrestrial laser scanning” (Vosselman G, Maas H-G eds). Whittles Publishing, Caithness, Scotland, UK, pp. 318.
Gscholar

(24)

Metz J, Seidel D, Schall P, Scheffer D, Schulze ED, Ammer C (2013)
Crown modeling by terrestrial laser scanning as an approach to assess the effect of aboveground intra-and interspecific competition on tree growth. Forest Ecology and Management 310: 275-288.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(25)

Puettmann KJ, Coates KD, Messier C (2009)
A critique of silviculture: managing for complexity. Island Press, Washington, USA, pp. 189.
Online | Gscholar

(26)

Pretzsch H (1992)
Konzeption und Konstruktion von Wuchsmodellen für Rein- und Mischbestände [Concept and design of growth models for monocultures and mixed stands]. Forstliche Forschungsberichte München 115, Forstwissenschaftliche Fakultät der Universität München und der Bayer, Forstliche Versuchs- und Forschungsanstalt, München, Germany. [in German]
Gscholar

(27)

Pretzsch H (2001)
Modellierung des Waldwachstums [Modelling forest growth]. Blackwell Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH, Berlin/Wien, pp. 357. [in German]
Gscholar

(28)

Pretzsch H, Biber P, Dursky J (2002)
The single tree-bsed stand simulator SILVA: construction, application and evaluation. Forest Ecology and Management 162 (1): 3-21.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(29)

Pretzsch H (2006)
Von der Standflächeneffizienz der Bäume zur Dichte-Zuwachs-Beziehung des Bestandes. Beitrag zur Integration von Baum- und Bestandesebene [From growth efficiency of a tree to the density-growth relationship of stands. Contribution to the combined consideration of tree- and stand level]. Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung 177: 188-199. [in German]
Gscholar

(30)

Pretzsch H, Schütze G (2009)
Transgressive overyielding in mixed compared with pure stands of Norway spruce and European beech in Central Europe: evidence on stand level and explanation on individual tree level. European Journal of Forest Research 128: 183-204.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(31)

Pretzsch H (2010)
Forest dynamics, growth and yield. Springer, Berlin, Germany, pp. 664.
Gscholar

(32)

Röhle H, Huber W (1985)
Untersuchungen zur Methode der Ablotung von Kronenradien und der Berechnung von Kronengrundflächen [On the method of crown radius delineation and calculation of crown projection area]. Forstarchiv 56: 238-243. [in German]
Gscholar

(33)

Röhrig E, Bartsch N, Lüpke B (2006)
Waldbau auf ökologischer Grundlage [Ecological silviculture] (7th edn). Ulmer, Stuttgart, Germany, pp. 479. [in German]
Gscholar

(34)

Schröter M, Härdtle W, Von Oheimb G (2012)
Crown plasticity and neighborhood interactions of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in an old-growth forest. European Journal of Forest Research 131: 787-798.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(35)

Seidel D, Fleck S, Leuschner C, Hammett T (2011a)
Review of ground-based methods to measure the distribution of biomass in forest canopies. Annals of Forest Science 68 (2): 225-244.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(36)

Seidel D, Leuschner C, Müller A, Krause B (2011b)
Crown plasticity in mixed forests: quantifying asymmetry as a measure of competition using terrestrial laser scanning. Forest Ecology and Management 261 (11): 2123-2132.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(37)

Seidel D, Fleck S, Leuschner C (2012)
Analyzing forest canopies with ground-based laser scanning: a comparison with hemispherical photography. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 154-155: 1-8.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(38)

Van Laar A, Akça AE (2007)
Forest mensuration (vol. 13). Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 399.
Online | Gscholar

(39)

Winter MB, Ammer C, Baier R, Donato DC, Seibold S, Müller J (2015)
Multi-taxon alpha diversity following bark beetle disturbance: evaluating multi-decade persistence of a diverse early-seral phase. Forest Ecology and Management 338: 32-45.
CrossRef | Gscholar

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

Contents

Search

Journal Info

Journal Subjects and Fields

For Authors

For Reviewers

For Readers

SISEF Publishing

Search iForest Contents