Inventories - Forest inventory

9 important questions on Inventories - Forest inventory

Why do a rectangular plot?

  • Easy to determine whether trees are in or out
  • in rolling terrain can be oriented along slope to capture most variability

What are the problems with rectangular plots?

More edge effects (high perimeter to area ratio)

How do you deal with plots at the stand boundary?

  1. Move plot so that if falls within the edge
    • edge trees will be under sampled
    • bias if stand has lots of edges
  2. mirror excluded area
    • place an auxiliary point at the same distance from the edge in the adjacent stand
    • count the trees in the overlapping circle segment twice
    • edge trees will be oversampled, leading to bias
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What are the principles of the sixth tree method?

  • Plot size is variable, and determined by the distance to the center of the 6th tree
  • all 5 nearest trees are measured for their DBH
  • also called the distance method

What is the best method for basal area and why?

  • Circular plots & angle guage have similar low SD, CV, precision & number of plots needed to get a 10% precision.
  • precision (with repetitive measures you get similar values)
  • accuracy (how close the value that you obtain is from the " real value"). So is this the real value of basal area?

What is the best method for density and why?

Circular plot as it has the lowest SD, the lowest CV, and highest precission.

Why do you think that a relatively high number of plots is needed to describe the Oostereng area with 10% precision?

Lots of variation among stands in composition and age, this variation has increased due to logging (e.g., half of the stand was logged).

What method approaches the “real” forest values best?

I would say that the circular plot and 6th tree method are the approaches given results closer to the "real" forest but we do not know as we have not measured the whole forest.

What method is the best compromise in terms of precision and time needed?

It depends on the question. If you want to have a quick estimate of BA, then the angle gauge method is the best option. If you want to be more accurate, then the circular plot method or the 6th tree method would be the best option (but see question 4 ).

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