Diameter Growth Models Using Minnesota Forest Inventory and Analysis Data

Abstract

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service North Central Research Station (NCRS) has begun replacing the 12- to 13-yr periodic inventory cycles for the states in the North Central region with annual inventories featuring measurement of approximately 20% of all plots in each of the 11 states each year. State reports on summaries of the forest resources will be produced every 5 yr. As a method of updating information on plots not visited in the current year, NCRS is developing nonlinear, individual-tree, distance-independent annual diameter growth models for species groups. The models, formulated as the product of an average diameter growth component and a modifier component, were calibrated on Minnesota FIA data from stands that were generally undisturbed, of mixed ages and of mixed species. The dependent variable is annual diameter growth. The independent variables include crown ratio, crown class, stand basal area, stand basal area larger than the subject tree, physiographic class, and latitude and longitude of plot locations. The model predictions at both the individual-tree level and plot level have negligible bias, and the models may be easily recalibrated to include new data sets obtained from the annual inventories. For. Sci. 47(30):301–310.