Analysis of forest growth data on intensive monitoring plots

Brüssel

2011

S. 115-126

Artikel aus einer Zeitschrift

200173618

Based on existing long term and intensive forest monitoring data, forest growth has been evaluated for 822 plots in 30 European countries. Data include information on breast height diameter of all trees, heights of selected trees and plot area. For nearly 600 plots remeasurements were available within different measurement intervals. In addition to the data quality checks routinely applied in the context of data submission to the central data base, accuracy of the data and the calculations were checked by independent remeasurements on selected plots and by applying national form functions to a test data set provided to national experts. Results show stocking wood volumes between 300m³/ha and 600m³/ha for most plots with higher volumes for plots in the Alps and lower volumes in the northern and southern regions. Basal area and stem volume increments show similar spatial patterns. Low increments are located in the south and north whereas the plots in Spain show very low increments. Moderate increments are observed on the plots of central and eastern Europe and high increments are found in the western region. The results provides a unique overview on forest growth based on standardized measurements. They are a valuable basis for future validation, refinement or creation of forest growth models, for the determination of growth responses to site and environmental conditions and their changes and for the estimation of harvestable wood and potential stocking biomass in European forests under different management scenarios.