Validation of an individual-based model of forest dynamics using self-thinning relationships

Authored by Christophe Lett, JMN Walter

Date Published: 1999

DOI: 10.1016/s0764-4469(00)86654-8

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Self-thinning relationships link mean plant size and plant density for even-aged populations subjected to density-dependent mortality. Because the relationships are expressed at the population or the community level, they constitute a validation test for individual-based models of plant population dynamics. The model proposed here stems from forest gap models of the JABOWA/FORET-type and succeeds the validation test. Th is validates the growth and mortality individual-based local rules used in most gap models. The result arises in the model because some basic assumptions make density a negative exponential function of time and mean individual size a sigmoid function of time. (C) 1999 Academie des sciences / Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.

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