Long Term Changes in Stand Structure and Biomass Production in

rotation willow coppice. Doctor’s dissertation. ISSN 1652-6880, ISBN 91-576-6919-8. Short rotation willow coppice (SRWC) is a recently commercialised agricultural crop in Sweden, producing biomass for energy. The expected lifespan of a SRWC plantation is more than 20 years, or at least 5 harvests. Consequently, understanding of long term stand development in relation to management, plant material and site characteristics is of great importance. The focus of this thesis is on SRWC biomass production during later cutting cycles. Long term development and dynamics have been studied during three cutting cycles by means of annual census of individual stools, scaled up to stand level. Methods for non-destructive biomass assessment, by means of allometric relations, have been developed and validated for different clones. A method for predicting willow shoot growth in field trials, under different nutrient and water conditions, based on characteristics found in pot-grown plants under corresponding conditions, has also been investigated. The best non-destructive method for assessing shoot weight of clones with bow-shaped and branching stems was found to be shoot dry weight related to the sum of the cros