Analysis of the relationship between DBH and crown projection area using a new model：（胸径和冠投射区之间的关系的分析使用一个新的模型）.pdfVIP

J. For. Res. 2: 237-2 4 2 (1997) Analysis of the Relationship between DBH and Crown Projection Area Using a New Model Koji Shimano1 Laboratory of Forest Ecology, Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University, Matsudo 27 I, Japan. Relations of DBH-crownprojectionarea (CPA)were studiedfor deciduousand coniferoustrees with differentmodels, one of which is newly derivedthis time. For DBH-CPA relations,a proposed power-sigmoidfunctionwas the most suitableone among four mod- els because of its good fit and mechanistic meaning. This model contains the feature that CPA grows with the second power rela- tion to DBH, and the increasingrate of CPA slows as DBH increases.With transformation,the power-sigmoid function for DBH CPA relation can be appliedfor individualbasal area (IBA)-CPA relationsas single-saturatefunction,and these two functionalmod- els have high compatibility.Next, the differencesof DBH-CPA between deciduous and coniferoustree groups were analyzedwith power-sigmoid function. The initial increasingrates of CPA against DBH for each group were similar,though the CPAs increas- ing rate for the coniferous group tended to decrease earlier than for the deciduous group. Because the power sigmoid function has mechanistic meanings, one can separately analyze the attributes of the DBH-CPA relation: the initial increasing rate of CPA and final tree form. Key words: crown projection area, DBH, mathematical model, power sigmoid function, tree form In order to understand forest structure, competition and 1984; Tabbush and White, 1988; Farr et al., 1989; Smith et al., production, it is useful to know the crown-projection area 1992; Larocque and Ma