Restoration and management of callitris forest ecosystems in Eastern Australia: Simulation of attributes of growth dynamics, growth increment and biomass accumulation

• Published in: Ecological modelling 2013-08, Vol.263, p.152-161
• Main Authors: Ngugi, Michael R., Botkin, Daniel B., Doley, David, Cant, Mark, Kelley, Jack
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: aboveground biomass; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; basal area; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; biomass production; Callitris; Calyptorhynchus lathami; carbon sequestration; Carbon storage; Computer simulation; Conservation; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Degradation; Dynamics; Ecosystems; Environmental degradation: ecosystems survey and restoration; Falco; falcons; fauna; forest communities; Forest dynamics; forest ecosystems; Forest management; forest resources; Forest utilisation; Forestry; Forests; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; General forest ecology; Generalities. Production, biomass. Quality of wood and forest products. General forest ecology; habitats; logging; Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...); monitoring; Petrogale; Petrogale penicillata; Restoration; Simulation model; stand structure; tree and stand measurements; woody plants
• ISSN: 0304-3800; 1872-7026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.05.004

•Data-based validation of a dynamics model for uneven-aged mixed species forests.•Over 70-year time-series forest growth dataset used for model validation.•Model projected tree density, diameter, basal area and live aboveground biomass.•Mean annual diameter growth increments for native species in Callitris forests.•Projected attributes were between 88% and 94% of the observed. Availability of quantitative information on growth increment, biomass accumulation and growth dynamics of fragmented and degraded forest ecosystems is a common challenge in restoration work. Ecological models of forest dynamics have the potential to provide a structure through which data, observations and assumptions can be combined and explored. The utility of such models, however, is often limited by lack of validation. In this paper we used growth data for 143,200 tree measurements, in 121 plots spanning up to 70 years of forest monitoring from uneven-aged mixed species callitris forests of Australia to test the Ecosystem Dynamics Simulator (EDS). These are among the least known and most degraded forest communities in Australia and are known habitat for threatened and rare fauna species including brush-tailed rock wallaby (Petrogale penicillata), glossy black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami), grey falcon (Falco hypoleucos), golden-tailed gecko (Strophurus taenicauda) and others. We determined growth parameters for 26 woody species and applied these to the EDS to validate projected stand structure and growth. The model projections explained 93.9% (diameter at breast height (dbh)), 88.9% (basal area), 90.5% (stem density) and 88.6% (aboveground biomass) of the observed variation. To our knowledge, this is one of the most accurate validations of forest dynamics simulation achieved to date. Diameter growth rates for most species were