Disaggregating Stand Volume Growth To Individual Trees

A disaggregation function, relative size-growth (RSG) function, is proposed and developed to distribute stand volume growth to a list of individual trees. The relative size-growth (RSG) function is formulated as a quadratic equation relating relative tree growth to relative tree size in a stand. The shape of the RSG function is linear, convex, or concave depending on initial stand conditions and structure. A recursive system of equations is developed to predict the three coefficients of the RSG function using initial stand density, mean tree size and coefficient of variation of tree size distribution as predictor variables. This disaggregation function determines within-stand growth of individual trees and simulates stand development and dynamics. The RSG function provides a biologically based link between whole-stand and individual tree resolution models