Constructing a Model of Poplus spp. Growth Rate Based on the Model Fusion and Analysis of Its Growth Rate Differences and Distribution Characteristics under Different Classes of Environmental Indicators

Abstract

Poplar (Poplus spp.) is an important forest species widely distributed in China of great significance in identifying factors that clearly influence its growth rate in order to achieve effective control of poplar growth. In this study, we selected 16 factors, including tree size, competition, climate, location, topography, and soil characteristics, to construct linear regression (LR), multilayer perceptron (MLP), k-nearest neighbor regression (KNN), gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), random forest (RF), and deep neural network (DNN) models based on the poplar growth rate. Using model fusion methods, the fitting accuracy and estimation capability were improved. The relative importance of each variable in estimating the poplar growth rate was analyzed using the permutation importance evaluation. The results showed the following: (1) the model fusion approach significantly improved the estimation accuracy of the poplar growth rate model with an R2 of 0.893; (2) the temperature and precipitation exhibited the highest importance in poplar growth; (3) the forest stand density, precipitation, elevation, and temperature had significant variations in growth rates among different-sized poplar trees within different ranges; (4) low-forest stand density, high-precipitation, low-elevation, and high-temperature environments significantly increased the poplar growth rate and had a larger proportion of large-sized individuals with high growth rates. In conclusion, environmental factors significantly influence poplar growth, and corresponding planting and protection measures should be tailored to different growth environments to effectively enhance the growth of poplar plantations.

Assessing Forest-Change-Induced Carbon Storage Dynamics by Integrating GF-1 Image and Localized Allometric Growth Equations in Jiangning District, Nanjing, Eastern China (2017–2020)

“…For example, Zhang et al studied a model of Poplus spp. and analyzed the distribution characteristics under different classes of environmental indicators based on the KNN model and RF model, and a high accuracy and good fitting effect were accordingly achieved [40]. However, the model simulation coefficients of the above-mentioned density-dependent models are species-dependent and site-specific; thus, to better predict the growth of particular stands by using these models, it is necessary to make the model parameters localized.…”