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Institute of Forest Biometry and Informatics

Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology
at the
University of Göttingen


PLANT MODELLING GROUP

PROJECT:

Development of statistical and geometric methods for the characterization of the architecture of plants and forest stands and for comparing models



Short description of project

For the purpose of validation and comparison of 3-dimensional tree and stand models, new statistical and geometric-combinatorial analysis tools shall be developed and implemented in a scientific software, together with established methods. Points of departure are geostatistical methods, Markoff chains, multivariate distributions and geometric-combinatorial characteristics (e.g. neighbourhood relations in tree stands). Aims with practical relevance are: (a) the precise characterization of complex 3-dimensional plant ensembles in spatially heterogeneous (mixed-species) forest stands, (b) upscaling of models, i.e. the extraction of relevant information when the level of detail is coarsened, (c) taking a property depending on tree architecture into account in forest stand models - an example of such a property is wood quality. The dynamic character of the simulated plant structures and the fundamental role of physical and physiological mechanisms in tree growth and competition shall be taken into account.



Aims

(a) A "toolchest" of methods devoted to the description and comparison of single-tree and stand structure shall be developed (theoretical description, implementation and test). New as well as established methods shall be used. The methods for comparing datasets shall be designed for comparison of simulation results with reality (model validation) as well as for comparison of model results with each other (taking models from other research groups into account).

(b) Interrelations between several methods of description shall be subject of a mathematical analysis (analytically, or by model experiments). E.g., the relationships between the following approaches are until now not well clarified in mathematical terms:

and for the single tree also:
(Parts of these mathematical investigations will be carried out by Winfried Kurth.)

(c) In the form of examples (two or three cases), a "reduction of models" shall be carried out: From detailed models (LIGNUM, AMAP, possibly MADEIRA) which are more or less physiologically-based, simplified, rule-based models shall be derived which are less demanding in terms of calculation time and can therefore be applied for larger tree stands. The challenge is to preserve the essential characteristics of growth dynamics, competition and development of structure during this simplification process.


Steps


A research stay of Helge Dzierzon at the Finnish Forest Research Centre has already served to prepare the data exchange with the Finnish group and to get acquainted with problems emerging from the different treatment of tree stands and individual trees in models. A software tool for treating spatially anisotopic competition effects as they influence the growth of a single tree in the LIGNUM model was developed.


Cooperation partners:

Dr. H. Spellmann and Dipl.-Forstw. M. Guericke, Department of Growth and Yield at the Forest Research Station of Lower Saxony, Göttingen,

Dr. Risto Sievänen and Dr. Jari Perttunen at the Finnish Forest Research Centre (METLA), Finland,

Prof. Dr. Hans Pretzsch, Chair for Forest Growth Modelling, Technical University of Munich


Start of project: March 15, 2000.
End of project: February 28, 2003.
Funding: DFG project.

Intermediate report (in German)
Final report (in German)

This project was carried out by Helge Dzierzon.

 



 

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Last modifications: August 13, 2003