Improved estimates of per-plot basal area from angle count inventories

doi:10.3832/ifor1158-007

Improved estimates of per-plot basal area from angle count inventories

Chris S Eastaugh^(1-2) , Hubert Hasenauer⁽¹⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 7, Issue 3, Pages 178-185 (2014)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor1158-007
Published: Feb 17, 2014 - Copyright © 2014 SISEF

Technical Advances

PDF Version

Full Text

Citation

Forest inventories were originally designed for the assessment of timber stocks over large areas. The large datasets gathered by these programs are becoming of increasing interest in other applications, particularly in ecosystem modeling. With inventory designs based on sampling proportional to size (angle-count plots) users should be cautious of using data pertaining to individual plots, as the plot-wise data is a statistical estimate rather than a true measurement. Estimates of per-plot basal area are mathematically unbiased, but the individual precision is extremely poor. Resampling of inventory datasets using multiple basal area factors can improve the precision of the estimates on single plots, thus providing better data for potential end users. Following two simulation studies to demonstrate our method we apply it to the sampling points of the Austrian National Forest Inventory, and show how the improved estimates of basal area give rise to more realistic estimates of basal area increment on individual points, reducing variance through the smoothing of extreme estimates. Our method will be useful in studies where angle count inventory data pertaining to individual plots is used to assess the precision of models or remote sensing methods.

Keywords

Inventory, Basal Area, Sampling Proportional to Size, Resampling, Bitterlich

Authors’ address

(1)

Institute of Silviculture, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Peter Jordan Str. 82, A-1190 Wien (Austria)

(2)

School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, NSW 2480 Lismore (Australia)

Corresponding author

Chris S Eastaugh
chris.eastaugh@scu.edu.au

Citation

Eastaugh CS, Hasenauer H (2014). Improved estimates of per-plot basal area from angle count inventories. iForest 7: 178-185. - doi: 10.3832/ifor1158-007

Academic Editor

Marco Borghetti

Paper history

Received: Oct 22, 2013
Accepted: Jan 29, 2014

First online: Feb 17, 2014
Publication Date: Jun 02, 2014
Publication Time: 0.63 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: 50640
(from publication date up to now)

Breakdown by View Type
HTML Page Views: 43212
Abstract Page Views: 2111
PDF Downloads: 4038
Citation/Reference Downloads: 37
XML Downloads: 1242

Web Metrics
Days since publication: 3930
Overall contacts: 50640
Avg. contacts per week: 90.20

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 2014): 3
Average cites per year: 0.30

(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)

Bellassen V, Viovy N, Luyssaert S, Le Maire G, Schelhaas MJ, Cais P (2011)
Reconstruction and attribution of the carbon sink of European forests between 1950 and 2000. Global Change Biology 17 (11): 3274-3292.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(2)

Bitterlich W (1948)
Die Winkelzählprobe. Allgemeine Forst- und Holzwirtschaftliche Zeitung 59 (1-2): 4-5.
Gscholar

(3)

Bugmann HKM, Solomon AM (2000)
Explaining forest composition and biomass across multiple biogeographical regions. Ecological Applications 10 (1): 95-114.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(4)

Didion M, Kupferschmid AD, Lexer MJ, Rammer W, Seidl R, Bugmann H (2009)
Potentials and limitations of using large-scale forest inventory data for evaluating forest succession models. Ecological Modelling 220: 133-147.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(5)

Eastaugh CS, Pötzelsberger E, Hasenauer H (2011)
Assessing the impacts of climate change and nitrogen deposition on Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst) growth in Austria with BIOME-BGC. Tree Physiology 31 (3): 262-274.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(6)

Eastaugh CS, Hasenauer H (2011)
Incorporating management history into forest growth modeling. iForest 4: 212-217.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(7)

Eastaugh CS, Hasenauer H (2012)
A statistical thinning model for intializing large-scale ecosystem models. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research 27 (6): 567-577.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(8)

Eastaugh CS, Hasenauer H (2013)
Biases in volume increment estimates derived from successive angle-count sampling. Forest Science 59 (1): 1-14.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(9)

Floyd ML, Clifford M, Cobb NS, Hanna D, Delph R, Ford P, Turner D (2009)
Relationship of stand characteristics to drought-induced mortality in three Southwestern pinon-juniper woodlands. Ecological Applications 19 (5): 1223-1230.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(10)

Grosenbaugh LR (1958)
Point-sampling and line-sampling: probability theory, geometric implications, synthesis. Occasional Paper no. 160, South Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service, Asheville, NC, USA, pp. 34.
Gscholar

(11)

Hasenauer H, Eastaugh CS (2012)
Assessing forest production using terrestrial monitoring data. International Journal of Forestry Research, Article ID 961576, pp. 8.
Gscholar

(12)

Holgate P (1967)
The angle-count method. Biometrika 54 (3/4): 615-623.
Gscholar

(13)

Hradetzky J (1995)
Concerning the precision of growth estimation using permanent horizontal point samples. Forest Ecology and Management 71: 203-210.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(14)

Huber MO, Eastaugh CS, Gschwantner T, Hasenauer H, Kindermann G, Ledermann T, Lexer MJ, Rammer W, Schörghuber S, Sterba H (2013)
Comparing simulations of three conceptually different forest models with National Forest Inventory data. Environmental Modelling and Software 40: 88-97.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(15)

Hurlbert SH (1984)
Pseudoreplication and the design of ecological field experiments. Ecological Monographs 54 (2): 187-211.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(16)

Jalkanen A, Mattila U (2001)
Logistic regression models for wind and snow damage in northern Finland based on the National Forest Inventory data. Forest Ecology and Management 135 (1-3): 315-330.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(17)

Lichstein JW, Dushoff J, Ogle K, Chen A, Purves DW, Caspersen JP, Pacala SW (2010)
Unlocking the forest inventory data: relating individual tree performance to unmeasured environmental factors. Ecological Applications 20 (3): 684-699.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(18)

Martin GL (1982)
A method for estimating ingrowth on permanent horizontal sample points. Forest Science 28: 110-114.
Online | Gscholar

(19)

Mohren GML, Hasenauer H, Kohl M, Nabuurs GJ (2012)
Forest inventories for carbon change assessments. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 4 (6): 686-965.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(20)

Motz K, Sterba H, Pommerening A (2010)
Sampling measures of tree diversity. Forest Ecology and Management 260: 1985-1996.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(21)

Mäkelä A, Del Rio M, Hynynem J, Hawkins M, Reyer C, Soares P, Van Oijen M, Tomé M (2012)
Using stand-scale forest models for estimating indicators of sustainable forest management. Forest Ecology and Management 285: 164-178.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(22)

Palley MN, Horwitz LG (1961)
Properties of some random and systematic point sampling estimators. Forest Science 7 (1): 52-65.
Gscholar

(23)

Schieler K, Hauk E (2001)
Instruktion für die Feldarbeit, Öserreichische Waldinventur 2000/ 2002. Forstliche Bundesversuchsanstalt Waldforschungszentrum, Vienna, Austria, pp. 199.
Gscholar

(24)

Schieler K (1997)
Methoden der Zuwachsberechnung der Österreichischen Waldinventur. PhD Thesis, Universität für Bodenkultur, Wien, Austria, pp. 92.
Gscholar

(25)

Scott CT (1990)
An overview of fixed versus variable-radius plots for successive inventories. In: “State-of-the-art methodology of forest inventory: a symposium proceedings” (LaBau VJ, Cunia T eds). General Technical Report PNWGTR 263, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service, Radnor, PA, USA, pp. 97-104.
Gscholar

(26)

Spurr SH (1962)
A measure of point density. Forest Science 8 (1): 85-96.
Gscholar

(27)

Seidl R, Eastaugh CS, Kramer K, Maroschek M, Reyer C, Socha J, Vacchiano G, Zlatanov T, Hasenauer H (2013)
Scaling issues in forest ecosystem management and how to address them with models. European Journal of Forest Research 132 (5-6): 653-666.
CrossRef | Gscholar

(28)

Stöhr FK (1959)
Ein Vorschlag zur Erreichung einer höheren Genauigkeit bei Probeflächenaufnahmen nach der Winkelzählprobe. Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung 139 (11/12): 249-261, 276-287.
Gscholar

(29)

Whyte AGD, Tennent RB (1975)
Improving estimates of stand basal area in working plan inventories. New Zealand Journal of Forestry 20 (1): 134-147.
Gscholar

(30)

Zielinski WJ, Truex RL, Dunk JR, Gaman T (2006)
Using forest inventory data to assess fisher resting habitat suitability in California. Ecological Applications 16 (3): 1010-1025.
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