Model-based investigation on the effects of spatial evenness, and size selection in thinning of Picea abies stands

Size and spatial distribution of trees are important for forest stand growth, but the extent to which itmatters in thinning operations, in terms of wood production and stand economy, has rarely beendocumented. Here we investigate how the choice of spatial evenness and tree-size distribution ofresidual trees impacts wood production and stand economy. A spatially explicit individual-basedgrowth model was used, in conjunction with empirical cost functions for harvesting andforwarding, to calculate net production and net present value for different thinning operations inNorway spruce stands in Northern Sweden. The in silico thinning operations were defined by threevariables: (1) spatial evenness after thinning, (2) tree size preference for harvesting, and (3) basalarea reduction. We found that thinning that increases spatial evenness increases net productionand net present value by around 2.0%, compared to the worst case. When changing the spatialevenness in conjunction with size preference we could observe an improvement of the netproduction and net present value up to 8.0%. The magnitude of impact differed greatly betweenthe stands (from 1.7% to 8.0%) and was highest in the stand with the lowest stem density