Relation between selected indicators of forest stand diversity and quality of timber production in young stands aged up to 40 years

Abstract

The present study examines the relationships between the indicators of tree species and structural diversity and the quality of timber production in young even-aged forest stands with the average age below 40 years. The study is based on the forest inventory data from University Forest Enterprise Kostelec nad Černými lesy, Czech Republic, performed from 2009 to 2011. The examined young stands were recorded in 256 sample plots representing 21.2% of the enterprise area. On each sample plot, we quantified 171 partial biodiversity indicators. In total, we analysed 16,416 different variants of the relationship between the diversity indicator and the quality of timber production. The analysis revealed that similarity indicators such as the range of tree heights, Canberra distance, Bray and Curtis index, and index of species evenness and heterogeneity were the most frequent basic indicators occurring in significant correlations. The results indicate a positive relationship between the proportions of assortments in quality classes I to IV and stand diversity expressed by the number of tree species and Canberra distance.

Keywords

• species and structural diversity
• managed forest
• assortment