Stem taper equation analysis for Larix kaempferi species in the Central Region of South Korea

• Published in: Journal of sustainable forestry Vol. 36; no. 8; pp. 747 - 763
• Main Authors: Doyog, Nova D., Lee, Young Jin, Lee, Sunjoo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Taylor & Francis 17.11.2017; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Forestry; Kozak02; Larix kaempferi; Mathematical models; ranking of equations; segmented and non-segmented taper equations; Species; Standard error; Statistical analysis; Sustainability; volume estimation; South Korea
• ISSN: 1054-9811; 1540-756X
• DOI: 10.1080/10549811.2017.1356737

Taper equation was developed to predict diameters at specific height for Larix kaempferi species in the Central Region of South Korea. The sampled trees that were collected through destructive sampling ranged from 0.60 to 47.90 cm DBH with total height ranging from 2.00 to 33.00 m. The dataset was randomly split into two: 80% for initial model fitting and 20% for model validation. The combined that means 100% dataset was used for final model fitting. Statistics of fit were used as criteria, including the coefficient of determination (R 2 ), standard error of the estimate (SEE), bias (Ē), the absolute mean difference (AMD), and the Akaike information criterion (AIC) values and weight (AICw), with a rank analysis being applied. Initial model fitting utilized a total of nine taper equations, with the three segmented taper equations and another three non-segmented determined for model validation and final model fitting. Kozak02 equation, which had not yet been evaluated for L. kaempferi species, indicated the best performance for the species in the Central Region of South Korea. Upon comparison, the ability of this study to predict diameters at specific height and stem volume was better than the existing taper equation for L. kaempferi in South Korea.