Two-year tree growth patterns investigated from monthly girth records using dendrometer bands in a wet evergreen forest in India

• Published in: Journal of tropical ecology 2000-05, Vol.16 (3), p.429-446
• Main Authors: Pélissier, Raphaël, Pascal, Jean-pierre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 2-y growth trend; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Autoecology; Biodiversity and Ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Coniferous forests; dendrometer bands; Dendrometry. Forest inventory; detrended growth profiles; Environmental Sciences; Forest canopy; Forest ecology; Forest growth; Forestry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; India; Plant ecology; Plants and fungi; Rain; seasonal growth variations; smoothed growth profiles; Tree growth; Trees; Tropical forests; Tropical rain forests; tropical wet evergreen forest; Western Ghats of India
• ISSN: 0266-4674; 1469-7831
• DOI: 10.1017/S0266467400001498

With the aim of characterizing tree growth patterns, this paper re-examines the growth data of 100 selected trees belonging to 24 species that were recorded monthly in a 0.2-ha plot of a wet evergreen forest in the Western Ghats of India during the period 1980–82 using dendrometer bands. The mean growth profile, combining all of the selected trees, showed: (a) a significantly lower annual growth rate during the second year of survey which seemed to be negatively related to monsoon precipitation; (b) significant intra-annual growth variation clearly related to the regular alternation between a period of heavy rain and a quite long dry season of the monsoon climatic regime. Analysis of the variability of the individual smoothed growth profiles representing the 2-y trend of the growth data showed that: (a) the mean growth rate depended on a combination of an intrinsic endogenous variable (the structural class grouping species according to their maximum size), a tree size variable (tree diameter at breast height, dbh) and a neighbourhood variable (the number of taller neighbours in a 10-m radius); (b) the sudden change in growth rate from one year to the other was not predictable using these variables. The amplitude of the seasonal variations, investigated from the detrended growth profiles, appeared to be dependent on a combination of tree dbh and the number of taller neighbours in a 10-m radius. A co-inertia analysis of the smoothed and the detrended growth profiles indicated that the trees with fast growth also exhibited high seasonal variation. It is suggested that fast growing trees are those with favourable crown positions, which are consequently subject to high transpiration rates due to radiation and wind exposure.