Revisión de índices de distribución espacial usados en inventarios forestales y su aplicación en bosques tropicales

Abstract

This paper reviews the different indices used to describe and characterize the horizontal structure or spatial pattern in forest stands, with particular emphasis on those which have been applied to the study of tropical forests. These indices have been classified according to their data-inventory requirements. A number of aspects concerned with the statistical properties of the most commonly employed indices (Fisher and Morisita indices, LQV techniques and SADIE in the quadrats group; Clark-Evans, Pielou and Byth-Ripley in the nearest-neighbour group; The empirical L(d) and O-ring functions in the mapped data group) and their applicability to tropical stands, have been tested in experimental plots located in an Andean tropical forest.