Selection priority for harvested trees according to stand structural indices

doi:10.3832/ifor2115-010

Selection priority for harvested trees according to stand structural indices

Yuanfa Li⁽¹⁾, Gangying Hui⁽²⁾, Hongxiang Wang⁽²⁾, Gongqiao Zhang⁽²⁾, Shaoming Ye⁽¹⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 10, Issue 3, Pages 561-566 (2017)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor2115-010
Published: May 05, 2017 - Copyright © 2017 SISEF

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The selection of trees to be harvested is a core tenet of uneven-aged forest management; however, few studies have focused on the process of tree selection. A set of stand structural parameters (uniform angle index, W; mingling index, M; dominance index, U) based on tree neighbor-spatial relationships, are particularly suitable for expressing the structural characteristics of forest stands. Such indices were used to parameterize thinning in three plots (a-c, each 100 × 100 m²) in a Korean pine broad-leaved forest in northeastern China and one plot (h, 70 × 70 m²) in a pine-oak mixed forest in northwest China. Low-intensity single-tree selection was applied according to the principles of structure-based forest management (SBFM), i.e., to promote high mixture, obvious size differentiation, and random pattern with the aim of improving the overall structure of the managed plots. A group of thinning priority indices (v_ij, k_ij and z_ij) were calculated according to the bivariate distributions of the structural characteristics of harvested trees and stands before harvest. Our results demonstrated that v_ij, k_ij and z_ij adequately describe the spatial relationship between each tree and its nearest neighbors, and their combinations can be efficiently used to set thinning priorities on harvested trees with different structural characteristics. Their application can reduce the subjectivity of the selection process and improve the speed and accuracy of the choice of trees to be harvested in uneven-aged mixed forests.

Keywords

Dominance Index, Mingling Index, Thinning, SBFM, Silviculture, Uneven-aged Forest, Uniform Angle Index

Authors’ address

(1)

College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Daxue East Road 100, Xixiangtang District, Nanning, Guangxi Province 530004 (China)

(2)

Key Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation, State Forestry Administration, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Box 1958, Beijing 100091 (China)

Corresponding author

Shaoming Ye
yshaoming@163.com

Citation

Li Y, Hui G, Wang H, Zhang G, Ye S (2017). Selection priority for harvested trees according to stand structural indices. iForest 10: 561-566. - doi: 10.3832/ifor2115-010

Academic Editor

Giorgio Alberti

Paper history

Received: May 16, 2016
Accepted: Feb 19, 2017

First online: May 05, 2017
Publication Date: Jun 30, 2017
Publication Time: 2.50 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.

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