Christian Kuehne, J. Paul McLean, Kobra Maleki, Clara Antón-Fernández, Rasmus Astrup. (2022). A stand-level growth and yield model for thinned and unthinned even-aged Scots pine forests in Norway. Silva Fennica vol. 56 no. 1 article id 10627. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.10627

Keywords: Pinus sylvestris; mortality; volume growth; seemingly unrelated regression; production forestry; system of equations

Highlights: The presented growth and yield model consists of component equations for dominant height, stem density, total basal area, and total stem volume; The component equations were fitted simultaneously using seemingly unrelated regression; The model is capable to forecast and compare outcomes of varying thinning regimes; The new component equations better represent the improved growing conditions for Scots pine in Norway.

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Management of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Norway requires a forest growth and yield model suitable for describing stand dynamics of even-aged forests under contemporary climatic conditions with and without the effects of silvicultural thinning. A system of equations forming such a stand-level growth and yield model fitted to long-term experimental data is presented here. The growth and yield model consists of component equations for (i) dominant height, (ii) stem density (number of stems per hectare), (iii) total basal area, (iv) and total stem volume fitted simultaneously using seemingly unrelated regression. The component equations for stem density, basal area, and volume include a thinning modifier to forecast stand dynamics in thinned stands. It was shown that thinning significantly increased basal area and volume growth while reducing competition related mortality. No significant effect of thinning was found on dominant height. Model examination by means of various fit statistics indicated no obvious bias and improvement in prediction accuracy in comparison to existing models in general. An application of the developed stand-level model comparing different management scenarios exhibited plausible long-term behavior and we propose this is therefore suitable for national deployment.

Kuehne, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Division of Forestry and Forest Resources, P.O. Box 115, NO-1431 Ås, Norway E-mail: christian.kuehne@nibio.no
McLean, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Division of Forestry and Forest Resources, P.O. Box 115, NO-1431 Ås, Norway E-mail: paul.mclean@nibio.no
Maleki, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Division of Forestry and Forest Resources, P.O. Box 115, NO-1431 Ås, Norway E-mail: kobra.maleki@nibio.no
Antón-Fernández, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Division of Forestry and Forest Resources, P.O. Box 115, NO-1431 Ås, Norway E-mail: clara.anton.fernandez@nibio.no
Astrup, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Division of Forestry and Forest Resources, P.O. Box 115, NO-1431 Ås, Norway E-mail: rasmus.astrup@nibio.no

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