Updating Indiana Annual Forest Inventory and Analysis Plot Data Using Eastern Broadleaf Forest Diameter Growth Models

Abstract

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the North Central Research Station (NCRS), USDA Forest Service, has developed nonlinear, individual-tree, distance-independent annual diameter growth models. The models are calibrated for species groups and formulated as the product of an average diameter growth component and a modifier component. The regional models for the Eastern Broadleaf (Continental)--Province 222, defined by R.G. Bailey, are calibrated using periodic Forest Inventory and Analysis data within that ecoregion. Average annual diameter growth is the dependent variable. The independent variables include crown ratio, crown class, stand basal area larger than the subject tree, physiographic class, latitude, and longitude. North Central Forest Inventory and Analysis has begun implementing annual inventories in a number of states of the region. The diameter growth models have been applied to annual data from Indiana to test their effectiveness on an independent data set that was collected under a survey design that differs from the one on which the models were calibrated. The bias of estimates increased with increasing values of crown ratio and with decreasing values of crown class.

Citation

Lessard, Veronica C. 2001. Updating Indiana Annual Forest Inventory and Analysis Plot Data Using Eastern Broadleaf Forest Diameter Growth Models. In: Reams, Gregory A.; McRoberts, Ronald E.; Van Deusen, Paul C., eds. 2001. Proceedings of the second annual Forest Inventory and Analysis symposium; 2000 October 17-18; Salt Lake City, UT. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-47. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 66-69