Calculation of a growth dominance statistic for forest stands

Abstract

Growth dominance within a forest stand refers to the proportional contribution to stand growth by individual trees in relation to the proportional contribution of the sizes of those trees to the stand total size. The dynamics of stand development depend on which of the larger or smaller trees in a stand dominate stand growth. Professor D. Binkley and others defined the “growth dominance statistic” that quantifies both the degree to which growth dominance is occurring in a stand and whether or not it is the larger or smaller trees in the stand that are dominating. The proponents of the statistic have not published the mathematical details of its determination. Those details are provided here, together with details of an alternative statistic that has been proposed.