Southern Research Station

Title: A Tree Taper Model Based on Similar Triangles and Use of Crown Ratio as a Measure of Form in Taper Equations for Longleaf Pine

Author: Shaw, Dennis J.; Meldahl, Ralph S.; Kush, John S.; Somers, Greg L.

Date: 2003

Source: Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-66. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 8 p.

Station ID: GTR-SRS-066

Description: We used data from 322 natural longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) trees to include crown ratio as a continuous variable in taper equations. The data were divided into 10 crown-ratio classes and fitted taper equations into each class to detect trends in the coefficients. For application to longleaf pine, we replaced coefficients that exhibited a trend with crown ratio with a function of crown ratio. The inclusion of crown ratio as a continuous variable improved by at least 16 percent the mean square residual for both models. The authors' model performed better on the modeling dataset based on fit statistics and on the validation dataset. It also contained fewer parameters and was casicr to rearrange to solve for height to a given diameter.

Keywords: Crown ratio, longleaf pine, Pinus palustris Mill., tree taper equations, tree taper model

View and Print this Publication (247 KB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.
• You may send email to pubrequest@fs.f ed.us to request a hard copy of this publication. (Please specify exactly which publication you are requesting and your mailing address.)

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Shaw, Dennis J.; Meldahl, Ralph S.; Kush, John S.; Somers, Greg L.  2003.  A Tree Taper Model Based on Similar Triangles and Use of Crown Ratio as a Measure of Form in Taper Equations for Longleaf Pine.   Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-66. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 8 p.