Hardwood competition and weevil infestation in white pine: lessons from a long term study

PATTERSON, W.A. Y M.A. AIZEN

NORTHERN JOURNAL OF APPLIED FORESTRY

SOC AMER FORESTERS

Año: 1989 vol. 6 p. 186 - 188

0742-6348

Predicting the long-term effects of forest management practices is difficultat best. Computer models are increasingly being employed to aid inthe evaluation of changes that might be expected to occur over the several decades required to bring a stand to harvestable age. The inputs for suc hmodels are tree size-structure tables,size-specific mortality rates, and transition probabilities estimated through population analyses no longer than afew years (Harcombe 1987) More complex nonlinear computationalmodels account for the ever-changing environment of individual trees (seeShugart 1984). These models have been very useful in understanding the processes of tree-population dynamics and forest succession, but few longterm empirical studies are available to validate them.