Growth and growing space: results from an individual-tree thinning experiment in a 20-year-old Douglas Fir plantation

A thinning experiment using individual trees with five treatments and five replications in a 20-year-old Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) plantation provided data for evaluating the relation between diameter increment for 3 years following thinning at three stem levels and various measures of local stand density (LSD). LSD was defined either as point stand density or the mean stand density within an area dependent on the crown projection area of a tree. LSD was evaluated using four indices: growing space polygons, an overlap-zone index, point density and mean stand basal area within the crown projection area x 3...