Performance was much better when calculating missing heights from the Swiss National Forest Inventory than when calculating heights with Silva’s internal routines. Finally, problems in predicting the development of

height:diameter ratios can arise from the form of the respective height and increment models, especially if there is a direct link between height growth and diameter growth models. Wonn and O’Hara (2001) reported a decrease in height:diameter ratios with increasing stand density for simulations with the growth model Prognosis (Wykoff et al., 1982). The cause was a diameter increment term in the height growth model of larger trees, which created positive feedback (Wonn and O’Hara, 2001). As expected, all four growth simulators predicted lower height:diameter ratios for dominant trees than for mean selleck inhibitor trees.

Differences in height:diameter ratios were mostly reasonable. Relative deviations from observed values were largest AC220 chemical structure in young stands. In our study we restricted simulations to the growth of trees with a dbh >5 or 10 cm, the minimum measurement diameter on the respective research plots. All four forest growth simulators are based on sufficient data for trees with dbh >5 cm. The development of young stands is quite interesting for growth and yield simulations, because the capacity for young stands to respond to release is highest (Assmann, 1961, Dimitri and Keudell, 1986, Wonn and O’Hara, 2001 and Mäkinen and Isomäki, 2004). In young stands, thinning can alter species mixture and stand stability, whereas at half of the rotation age most of the stand characteristics Orotidine 5′-phosphate decarboxylase (e.g., species composition) have stabilized and there remains little possibility to influence stand development. This

has led to recommendations that only low thinnings of little intensity should be done for spruce and pine after half of the rotation age has been reached (Pollanschütz, 1971, Abetz, 1976 and Klädtke and Abetz, 2001). The complex dynamics of young stands makes them difficult to predict. One methodological problem in young stands is the determination of site index, which is required for Moses. In young stands it is particularly difficult to determine site index because top-height curves are very close and steep, so that small height or age measurement errors can lead to large errors in site index ( Sterba et al., 1990). As a consequence, site index in young stands is often considerably overestimated ( Mantel, 1959). This paper compares simulation results for different individual-tree growth models employing different modelling strategies: models with and without a growth-potential formulation, and models with distance-dependent and distance-independent measures of competition. We did not find any particular modelling approach superior to the others. Also, we did not find a closer agreement between models of a similar subtype.